Gamebook: The Legends of Skyfall 2 - The Black Pyramid

Character Sheet

Initial E

EXPERTISE 12

Initial V

VITALITY 2C

Initial F

FORTUNE (10+3H-T)

EQUIPMENT

MAGICAL

STANDARD

Potions of Healing 1

Sword

Dagger

Backpack

Rope (SQft)

Tinderbox

Torches 1 2 3 4 5

Waterskin

PROVISIONS

Food (Sufficient for days...)

THE LEGENDS OF SKYFALL

The Black Pyramid

The planet of Skyfall is a dangerous place for the
humans who have colonised small areas of this
fabulous planet. There are vast tracts of unexplored
forest, plain and mountain inhabited by unknown
tribes and fantastic creatures. The rich and fertile
kingdom of Delta is bounded by sea to the south, by
the desolate icefields to the north, and to the west, by
the burning wastes of the Groaning Desert. Death
awaits any traveller who attempts the journey across
its barren, wind-scoured wastes . ..

You are a young Deltan adventurer, seeking your fortune
in the wilder outposts of the Kingdom. When a dying man
is carried in from the desert, gasping out an extraordinary
tale of the fantastic structure he has found in the
wilderness, your curiosity is aroused. You decide at once
to set out and explore the mysterious Black Pyramid for
yourself. But you find that the dangers of the hostile desert
are nothing to the terrors you encounter when you enter
that huge and sinister edifice . . .

In the Skyfall series of Advanced Fantasy gamebooks,
you must immerse yourself in the exciting world of
your character. If you reason logically from the
information given to you at each turn of the plot, your
chances of succeeding in your mission will be greater.

No dice-rolling is needed to play this book. Instead, a
unique, quick and convenient game system using the
heads and tails of coins has been introduced.

Scanned and compiled by Underdogs
Home of the Underdogs
http://www.the-underdogs.org/

About the author

David Tant was among the first people to play
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons when the game first
arrived in the U.K. (his highest level characters include
a master thief, born in 1978, and a patriarch called
Hopeless who is a year younger). The adventures in his
Skyfall books have been developed from those he has
run for his group of fantasy game-playing friends over
the years. He also acts as a referee ai D & D
competitions, and from Mondays to Fridays he is the
sub-manager of a South London bank.

Also available in this series

THE LEGENDS OF SKYFALL

1. Monsters of the Marsh

David Tant

THE LEGENDS OF

2 5 —

The Black Pyramid

Illustrated by

Jon Glentoran

Armada

The Black Pyramid was first
published in 1985 in Armada
by Fontana Paperbacks,
8 Grafton Street,
London W1X3LA

© David Tant 1985

Printed in Great Britain by
William Collins Sons & Co Ltd Glasgow

Conditions of Sale
This book is sold subject to the condition
that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise,
be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated
without the publisher's prior consent in any form of
binding or cover other than that in which it is
published and without a similar condition
including this condition being imposed
on the subsequent purchaser.

To Nick and Judi
with love

Contents

SKYFALL

The Skyfall Game System
Hints on Play
The Black Pyramid

5WI

The kingdom of Delta is the setting for all the
adventures in this series. It Ues in the northern
hemisphere of a planet fer from our own where
refugees from an exhausted and ravaged Terra survived
the crash-landing of their colony ship thousands of
years ago. They named the planet Skyfall, but although
some Terran names survive, no one now remembers
their origins.

The humans are not alone on Skyfall, although they
have multiplied until they now outnumber the other
intelligent races. Some of these live in peace and
harmony with men, while others are distinctly
antagonistic. Almost all science has been lost over the
centuries, but Magic has developed to take its place.
And Magic, in Delta, is of three types.

Arcane magic, the most spectacular, is learned at great
personal cost by Magicians, Sorcerers, Warlocks and
Necromancers who undertake a life-long search for
knowledge. Although many settle for a living by
entertaining the public with simple illusions and
harmless spells, a few survive the perils of meddling
with the occult to master spells that make even Kings
tremble at their power.

Clerical magic, mainly of the healing and supportive
type is practised by priests and bishops of the various
religions flourishing amongst the human and non-

10

human inhabitants. The village priest combines the
duties of spiritual leader and doctor.

Druidical magic is quite rare and its proponents tend
to Uve in the depths of the forests or similar lonely
areas. The Druids have amazing powers over animals
and all types of plants, including crops, and are fiercely
protective of them.

Although the human colonists brought the flora and
fauna of Terra with them, many species could not
survive on SkyfaU and are now extinct. In some cases,
however, local plants and animals have been given
Terran names due to some real or imagined similarity
to the original. Of the forest trees, only the oak, ash
and holly flourish on SkyfaU, and are accorded
considerable reverence by the Druids as a result. One
notable difference between SkyfaU and Terra is the
absence of a moon. Nights, as a result, are dark and
fearsome times when wise folk stay indoors or close to
a camp-fire. There are no tides, and winds and weather
are stable and predictable.

Delta is a rich and fertile country, bordered by
mountains to east and west, the Sea of Storms to the
south and, a few hundred miles to the north, by the
great icefields. Other settled regions lie mainly across
the sea, but there are civihzed countries beyond the
lands of the Barbarians to the east and some hundreds
of miles to the west, across the Great Void Desert. The
area between Lake Fraki and the icefields is mainly
tundra, roamed by animals and non-human tribes of
low intelUgence.

The massive mountain range known as The Ramparts
serves as the western border of Delta. There is one
pass, carved by a long-vanished river, and the
settlement of Seven Wells has grovm around the centre

11

of the pass at a point where water can still be found,
though many feet below the surface. To the west,
between the Ramparts and the foul-tasting river
known as The Waters of Death, Ues the Groaning
Desert, a vast expanse of rock and sand, scoured by the
prevailing south-west wind. Over the centuries even
the hardest rocks have been so eroded that the wind
now blows past coimtless caves and canyons to
produce the weird sound which gives the area its name.

Recently the shifting sands have uncovered ruins and
relics of an earlier, more advanced civilization, some of
them of considerable value and others whose purpose
has yet to be discovered.

Game System

Welcome to this adventure book. It is no ordinary
novel, for in it you are the leading character - a brave,
seasoned adventurer, in a fantasy world. You will take
the decisions; you will fight the evil adversaries which
stand between you and your goal, and you - with skill
and, perhaps, a little good fortune - will eventually
solve the mystery and reap your reward. You will
create your own story, or rather stories, as you can
work through this book many times. No two stories
wiU be the same, as even if you make the same
decisions each time, luck will play its part.

No special equipment is needed - just a pencil and a
coin. Any type of coin will do so long as it has a 'head'
and a 'tail'.

Use of the Coin

At numerous points throughout the book you will
need a coin to help resolve the outcome of a particular
situation. A simple formula will tell you what is to be
done. Here are some examples:

2H means 'toss the coin twice and count the number
ofheads'.(0,lor2)

3T means 'toss the coin three times and count the
number of tails'. (0, 1, 2 or 3)

4H-T means 'toss the coin four times, count the
number of heads and deduct the number of tails'.

14

(The resulting number could be anything from +4 to
-4)

Usually the result of coin-tossing will modify another
score, for instance:

E+4H means 'toss the coin four times, count the
number of heads and add that number to your
Expertise score'.

10+4H-T means 'toss the coin four times; count
the number of heads and add that number to 10,
then subtract the number of tails for your answer'
(the result here could be 6, 8, 10, 12 or 14).

A bit of practice will soon make you completely
familiar with the system.

Some people are quite expert at tossing a coin and can
frequently produce either heads or tails as required.
The idea, of course, is to introduce a random element
and, particularly when the coin needs to be tossed
three or four times, you may find it better to shake the
appropriate number of coins in your closed hand, then
open your fingers to reveal the result. (This may also
save losing the coin or attracting curious glances if you
are reading the book in a public place!)

Character Sheet

The Character Sheet is used during the adventure to
record changes in your three Characteristic Scores (see
below), additional weapons and other items you may
find, how much food and drink you are carrying and so
forth. You may use the Character Sheet provided inside
the front cover (in which case use a soft pencil so that
the page can be used more than once), copy that sheet

15

on to a separate piece of paper or photocopy the
Character Sheet.

Your Character Sheet should, at a glance, tell you

exactly what your Scores are at any given time, what
your character is carrying, what weapons, etc. you can
use, how much food and drink you have left and how
many potions are available. Make sure you keep it up
to date.

You may also need a blank sheet of paper for mapping
purposes (squared paper is even better). This will be
especially helpful if you have a maze type of area to
explore.

Characteristics

You start your adventure with three 'Characteristic
Scores' and these scores, perhaps varied from time to
time, stay with your character throughout your life.

EXPERTISE (E): this mainly represents your skill in
fighting with a sword or another
weapon, but can also represent your
other 'skills of adventuring' — for
instance, how well you climb walls
or ropes.

Your initial E is always 12.

VITALITY (V): this mainly represents your physical
fitness but can also be regarded as
your stamina, determination or
will-power. Points of Damage done
by an attacker are deducted from the
defender's V total.
Your initial V is always 20.

FORTUNE (F): this mainly represents how fortunate
you are in situations where luck can
play a part, but can also govern your

16

ability to avoid or withstand magical

spells and effects.

Your initial F is 10 + 3H-T (i.e. 7, 9,
11 or 13)

Note that your V score, though it may change during
your adventure, may never be greater than this initial
value of 20. Your E and F scores may also change
during the adventure, but in this case without
limitation, dropping as low as or rising well beyond
13. Your E can even drop below 0, but as F is normally
used voluntarily, you may not 'overdraw' your Fortune
by going below 0. Record all changes in your score, as
soon as they occur, on your Character Sheet.

Combat

Inevitably, during your quest, you will have to fight
evil creatures which oppose you or stand in your way.
The combat procedure is very simple and runs in
well-defined steps:

STEP 1: Is SURPRISE indicated in the text? If not, go
straight to STEP 2. If so, 3T is subtracted from the
defender's E score (the defender is the one being
surprised!) for the first round of combat. Then go to
STEP 2.

STEP 2: Evaluate E + 4H for yourself, then E + 4H for
your opponent. If your result is greater than your
opponent's, go to STEP 3. If your opponent's result is
greater than yours, go to STEP 4. If the two results
are equal, ignore them and start STEP 2 again. (This
procedure may occasionally be varied in the text if
you are fighting a group of monsters.)

STEP 3: You have hit your opponent; you may either
subtract your normal weapon damage from your

17

opponent's V score, then go to STEP 5 or USE
FORTUNE (see below) before going to STEP 5.

STEP 4: Your opponent has hit you. subtract the
appropriate number of Damage Points (given in the
text) from your V score and go to STEP 5 afterwards,
though you may USE FORTUNE if you wish (see
below).

STEP 5: If you or your opponent is dead, that is the end
of the combat, otherwise return to STEP 2 and
repeat the procedure. Each series of five steps
represents one round of combat. As soon as your
opponent's V score reaches 0, you have killed it and
combat is over. If your V score reaches 0, your
character is dead! Of course, you can always start
again with a new one, and use the experience gained
so far to make different decisions next time.

Weapon Damage

A dagger does 1 Point of Damage when it hits, and a
sword 2 Points. Other weapons, and animals attacking
with tooth and claw, will do damage as detailed in the

text.

Using Fortune

At various points in the adventure you will be asked if
you want to Use Fortune, perhaps to help you out of a
nasty situation, and you may always (if you wish) Use
Fortune every time STEP 3 or STEP 4 occurs in
combat.

Other than in combat. Using Fortune requires you to
subtract the stated number of points (perhaps modified
by coin-tossing - see the individual instructions) from
your current F score to achieve a particular result. In
general, the easier the result you want, the smaller will

18

be the loss in F points, whereas to bring about a really
lucky turn of events will demand a large F point
sacrifice. Specific cases will occur in the text - make
your decision at the time.

Fortune in Combat: You can use Fortune every time
combat reaches STEP 3 or STEP 4. In STEP 3 you
can give up a Fortune point and add 1 to the damage
you do, so that you can subtract an extra 1 point
from your opponent's V score. You may only add 1
point in any round of combat.

In STEP 4 you can give up FORTUNE points to
reduce the wound you have suffered, so that you can
subtract 1 less from your own V score than is
otherwise indicated, for each Fortune point so
sacrificed. You may reduce your own wound as
much as you like in this way.

Note that using FORTUNE either in combat or
otherwise, is normally optional; if you decide not to
use FORTUNE, so be it. However, occasionally you
may have to Use Fortune to survive Magical effects
in a particular situation.

Your F score can be very important - don't waste F
points simply to hasten the demise of a weak
creature which probably won't harm you anyway,
but try to preserve them and build them up for the
big occasion! You can gain F points during the
adventure - but you will only discover how to do so
by playing the game.

Equipment and Provisions

As noted on your Character Sheet, you always start an
adventure with your Sword, a Dagger and a light
leather backpack containing enough provisions (food
and drink) for two days. You are also assumed to have

19

certain mundane items in your possession - fifty feet
of rope, some torches, flint, steel and tinderbox - and if
any of these become of use to you, that use will be
mentioned in the text. You may find other useful items
along your journey; when finding one, note it on your
Character Sheet if you intend to keep it, otherwise you
must assume you forgot to take it along. Similarly,
cross off any item which you lose, use up or break.
Sometimes you will be given the opportunity to buy or
hire the means to carry more supplies and equipment:
canoe, pack-mule, etc. Again you will need to note
your Character Sheet accordingly.

You may eat and drink at any time when the text gives
you this option. If you do so, reduce your Provisions
total by 1 and add 4 points to your current V score. You
are not allowed to eat two or more meals at the same
time to boost a low V score! For simplicity of record
keeping, you are assumed to eat one main meal a day
which allows this recovery.

Sometimes you will be travelling extended distances,
and the text will tell you how many hours you have
taken to cover so many miles. If your journey lasts
several days, you may only travel for fourteen hours in
every twenty four and must spend the other ten hours
resting, sleeping and attending to other personal needs
which will include eating your one major meal with its
consequent amendment to your Provisions and
Vitality figures.

You also have three draughts of a Potion of Healing at
the start of your adventure. One draught may be taken
at any time (except during combat) and has the effect of
adding 8 points to your current V score (though never
increasing it to more than 20).

Hints on Play

This adventure book has been structured carefully to
reward the thinking player and to penalise the careless.
Each time you are presented with multiple choices, the
choice you select should be a rational one, based on
hints and clues you may have already obtained,
common sense and your current V and F scores. If, for
example, one choice permits you to divert from your
path to fight a fearsome monster, you might be well
advised to ignore this choice if your V and F score are
currently low (on the other hand, if you are in good
health and enjoy good fortune at the moment, the
monster might have some rich treasure, including a
useful magical item).

Preserve your Characteristic Scores carefully. If your
current V score is low, try to find a resting place where
you can safely eat and drink before you bump into an
enemy. Use a draught of your Potion of Healing if you
have to, but you start with only three draughts so they
are very precious. Try to retain at least a reasonable F
score at all times so that you have enough points to
rescue you from an unexpected and dangerous
situation. When thinking of using Fortune in Combat,
don't forget that one F point is 'worth' much more than
the V point; V points can be restored by food and drink
or by potions, but restoring F points is not so easy. You
may be lucky enough to obtain them during the

22

adventure but will nevertheless have much less
control over them than V points, so guard F carefully
and use Fortune in Combat only in dire necessity.

This is a difficult and dangerous mission; you will be
clever and fortunate indeed if you succeed on your first
attempt. On your second (and maybe subsequent)
attempt, use the experience and knowledge you gained
earlier to help you. However, you may NOT use any
equipment or items found on an earUer attempt as that
will have been lost with your character. You start each
adventure with just sword, dagger, backpack,
provisions and three draughts of Potion.

If you are interrupted, or lose your place when tossing a
coin or referring to your Character Sheet, you may &id
it pays either to use a bookmark or to keep a note of the

paragraphs as you read them.

The description of SkyfaU may give you some clues to
assist your quest, and the map should also be helpful.
Bear in mind, however, that you may be visiting places
fom which few have returned, so the map may not be
accurate in details of Uttle-known areas.

The Black Pyramid

Introduction

The first fight of the evening is just starting when the
burned man is carried in. For the moment, differences
are forgotten and everyone in 'The Laughing Hyena'
gathers around the improvised Utter, asking questions
of the bearers.

They had found him a little way off the track, just
outside the settlement, and if the last rays of the setting
sun had not been reflected from his belt buckle it is
unlikely he would have been discovered until moming.
In any event, from the man's condition you consider it
unlikely that he will survive to see the next day.

Dying men staggering in from the wilderness are not
unknown in Seven Wells, for the Groaning Desert is a
fearsome place by day or night. Nonetheless, the
inn-keeper and his customers, of whom you are one, do
their best to make the stranger comfortable while the
pot-boy is sent to fetch the priest to see what he can do,
either in the way of curing the man or easing his
passage into the next world.

He seems too-far gone to take in more than a dribble of
cold ale, but as his ragged, blood-sfreaked desert robes

are removed, the unusual nature of his injuries
becomes apparent. From his right ribs, diagonally

across his stomach and left hip is a dreadful wound,
some two inches wide and nearly an inch deep. What
can have caused it is beyond your imagination, but at
some stage a hot iron must have been applied to

26

27

cauterize the wound. The raw flesh has obviously been
burned, and the skin around the wound is bUstered.

That apart, the poor wretch shows the usual signs of
those venturing into the desert without proper
precaution. The skin of his face and hands is red and
sore, his lips swollen and blackened, and his knees and
hands bruised and abraded from falling and probably
crawling on the stretches of bare, eroded rock.

The priest arrives quickly but after an examination
shakes his head. Such a wound as this is beyond his
powers to cure, and he confirms that the end cannot be
more than a few hours away. He has the litter carried
into a side-room and prepares to wait for the end. You
and the other sympathetic patrons chip in for a few
drinks and a meal to help the priest through his vigil,
and a subdued evening in the inn ends well before
midnight.

Except for yourself, all the other guests at the inn have
gone to their rooms, and you are finishing a last drink
with some locals when a messenger comes for the
priest. The smith's wife has gone into labour earlier
than expected and the priest is again required for his
healing and soothing powers. This places the good man
in a dilemma: much as he hates to leave a dying man,
the living and soon-to-be-bom merit a higher priority.
On a whim you offer to take his place with the dying
stranger so that he can go. Your offer is gratefully
accepted, and soon you are alone in the small room
with the stricken fellow, who starts and cries out
occasionally from his exhausted stupor.

A bowl of lukewarm broth stands on the table and you
attempt to spoon a little between the cracked lips.
Surprisingly, he manages to drink a little and becomes

cabner. The chill night afr from the desert seeps into
the room and, drawing your cloak closer, you
eventually sink into a doze. "

Some hours later you awake to find the stranger
watching you. Although the end is near he has
recovered his senses sufficiently to relate his story.

A little over ten years ago a scholarly young magician,
eldest son of a rich and noble family, had formed an
expedition to cross the Groaning Desert from the

South West, being landed from a ship in Kraken Sound.
No successful crossing of the desert at its widest part
was known to have been made before, but ancient
legends spoke of a tribe Uving in its depths which was
possessed of sfrange powers. Nothing was heard or
seen of the expedition again: it vanished into the desert
waste like many before it. Recently, however, the next
eldest son came into the family fortunes on the death
of his father, and resolved to discover what had become
of his brother.

The speaker, a trusted family retainer, had been
provided with a small fortune in gemstones to travel
among the many small kingdoms around the Sea of
Storms seeking a Wizard who would make, sell or hire
that most valued of magical conveyances, a Flying
Carpet.

Eventually one was found in a far land and, after
profracted negotiations, it was agree that he would
carry the speaker across the desert to see if any trace
could be found of the legendary tribe, in case the
missing expedition had made contact. The speaker was
sure that the Wizard had agreed to go as much in the
hope of gaining new knowledge as reward from his
principal.

28

Flying was, naturally enough, quite outside his
experience, and once aloft he quickly lost track of his
whereabouts. All he knew was that they flew West
ik)m a point just down the coast fi-om Crickhaven,
crossed the Southern Ramparts, and flew over the
desert for some miles in sight of the sea before turning
North. He saw no more landmarks until they came to a
circular depression amongst the stony wastes of the
desert. This depression held a level sea of sand, apart
from the centre, where there was a single enormous
dune with unnaturally steep sides. Crowning the dune,
apparently built of dull black stone blocks, was a large
pjTamid.

Amazed that such a structure could be built in the
wilderness on such unsuitable foundation, the Wizard
had circled down for a closer look. A small group of
white-clad figures could be seen at the bottom of a
flight of steps, apparently mounting the dune, but
while they were still some distance away what he
could only describe as a beam of sunlight shot up at
them. He felt a line of fire sear his body and knew no
more until coming round lying on the soft sand near
the foot of the dune. The Wizard was dead with a
broken neck nearby, arid the carpet bumed and
obviously ruined, even had he known the spell to
operate it.

There seemed little alternative but to try to escape the
desert on foot, as what little he had seen of the natives
had not encouraged a further approach. Lacking food
and water, and suffering greatly from his wound, he set
out hopefully for the pass through the Ramparts, where
he knew Seven Wells presented a haven. He can
remember little of the joumey except that after the
first day he fravelled only by night, keeping the South

He can remember little of the joumey.

30

West wind at his back, and resting as best he could
through two scorching days. Having seen his birth
sign, the constellation of the Wolf, in the stars above
the horizon, he kept heading for that in the
superstitious hope that it might bring him to safety.
When dawn came on the third day, he could see the
pass a mile or two to the South and was still heading
for it when last he remembered.

The story told, he seems to relax and falls asleep.
Within the hour he dies peacefully without regaining
consciousness, but for some time you sit beside the
body, thinking on what you have heard.

The wind does indeed blow steadily from the South
West apart from such times as a typhoon out to sea
upsets the wind currents, so it should be possible to
backtrack the dead man. Three nights and part of a day
he had travelled, badly wounded, so you should take
less even heading into the wind. Providing you can
carry a week's water and set off from the right point,
you should be able to find the sand-fiUed depression,
and once there it would seem the dune and pyramid
should be visible.

The journey will obviously be dangerous but there are
three attractions:

Firstly, it seems there is the body of a Wizard with a
small fortune in gemstones and quite possibly some
valuable magical items lying near the dune.

Secondly, if you can discover anything of the fate of the
first party it seems logical that the dead man's master
would be willing to pay for the information.

Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, you have
become bored with the fruitless search for relics of the

31

old civilization. Occasional ancient artifacts have been
found over the years along the Western edges of the
Ramparts, and it was that which brought you here
some months ago. So far fortune has not been with you
and your funds have sunk nearly as low as your
enthusiasm.

You resolve to try your luck in the desert, and set off to
advise the priest of the death, before making your
preparations.

1

2-3

1

On the day following the death of the burned man, you
collect the equipment you will need, then spend the
remaining hours until evening getting as much rest as
possible.

You can normally make a full waterskin last two days,
and propose to take four full ones with you. Allowing
half-a-waterskin per day, this should provide for the
journey out and back plus two days to search the area.
You also carry a small tent, which will provide some
shelter from the sun's rays while you rest through the
day, in preference to extra food.

Much as you would like to take a draught animal,
horses are unsuitable for the desert terrain and you
have no experience of working with camels, which are
unpredictable beasts at best.

Your main problem lies in retracing the burned man's
route. Heading into the prevailing South West wind is
easy enough, but could produce an error of several
miles over a three night journey. The sand-filled
depression is only about three miles across, and would
not be visible from any distance in the wilderness of
eroded rock which is the Groaning Desert.

You have to be sure to march directly away from the
constellation of the Wolf, and decide that the best way
will be to keep checking in your mirror that the
constellation is slightly above and behind your head as
you go. (You may add a mirror to your Character
Sheet.)

At dusk you set off.
Turn to 54.

2

Without too much difficulty you are able to work your
head, arms and shoulders through the opening and
study the area beyond by the light of your torch.

In contrast to the black stone blocks which have
surrounded you for so long, the walls, floor and ceiling
are all a sandy-brown colour, and you assume this
whole area must have somehow been carved out of the
compacted sand of the dune, though how it can be
made to keep its shape is beyond your comprehension.

The floor is some five feet below you, the ceiling about
twenty feet above, and this hole is in the centre of a
twenty-five foot long wall of a room which stretches
away before you. You can just make out a large door, in
the left-hand end of the opposite wall, which must be
nearly iifty feet away.

All is quiet and still. If you wish to enter the room

and explore further, turn to 9.

Otherwise there is no alternative but to climb hack
up the rope, and you should turn to 28. In this case
you would have to extinguish your torch again.

3

You are at a point where four passages meet. Reading
clockwise the choices are as follows:

If you turn to 203 you will travel twenty feet to a

corner where the passage turns left.

If you turn to 135, you will travel twenty feet to
another point where four passages meet.

If you turn to 97 you will find this passage ends at a
door twenty feet away.

4-5

Ifyou turn to 251 you will travel fifty feet to a comer
where this passage turns left.

4

Having manoeuvred your ladder down the short length
of shaft, and broken the glass panel into the room
below, you lower the ladder further until progress is
stopped after another two or three feet. There is
obviously a strong, fairly springy, transparent barrier
preventing the ladder being forced down further, and
the glass shards have been similarly suspended some
twelve feet above the floor of the room below.

You feel there should be room to climb down the
ladder and then be able to crawl along below the
ceiling, ifyou wish. To try this, turn to 390.

If you decide against it, turn back to 269 for further
progress along the passage above.

However, ifyou decide to pull the ladder back up,
turn to 180.

5

In an attempt to listen for sounds of movement on the
other side, you press your ear to the door. There is an
unpleasant crawling sensation in your ear, and you
hastily snatch your head away. Looking at the door,
you see some tiny worms have appeared on the surface
where you placed your ear, and you become aware that
at least one has crawled inside the aural aperture itself.

You realize that these must be the dreaded Earwigs,
which have occasionally been known to infest
woodwork in cold, dark locations. Although normally
living on the wood itself, if introduced to a soft, warm
area they will burrow deep to lay their eggs. These will

6-7

hatch into larvae within an hour and voraciously
consume any food they can find.

Someone infected like yourself has two alternatives to
avoid madness and an early destruction of the brain.

Either someone must operate with a red-hot,
narrow-bladed knife, or an entire Healing Potion must
be poured into the ear within minutes of the infection.
As the first alternative is not available to you, you
must use a Healing Potion, deleting it from your
Character Sheet, before turning to 335.

If you have no Healing Potion, 1 regret that this is
effectively the end of the adventure for your character.

6

Putting your mirror away, you draw a weapon and head
back to the boulder where you saw the movement.

The boulder is some twelve feet in diameter and a bank
of sand has been piled against its windward side by the
steady wind. The Starlight gives reasonably good
illumination and all seems quiet and still there now.

If you wish to creep quietly around the dark North
side, to try to surprise anything which may be
hiding, turn to 118.

Otherwise, you resume your journey and should
turn back to 54.

7

You are almost halfway along a long, straight passage.

In one direction you can just see the comer where
this passage turns right fifty feet away. Ifyou move
to that comer, turn to 39.

In the opposite direction the passage tums a comer

8-10

to the left after forty ftve feet. Should you go that
way, turn to 229.

8

This side passage ends after only five feet, where there
is a hole in the floor, nearly as wide as the passage and
some two feet across.

Unless you have already taken some action to affect it,
you will see a shaft leading downwards for five feet,
narrowing slightly as it goes. At the bottom is a
smooth, black panel which could be glass, although
nothing is visible through it. If you hold your torch
down the shaft you may catch a flicker of movement
below, but will be unable to make out any details.

You decide not to investigate further and return to the
main passage.

Turn to 157.

9

You have entered a large room, twenty-five feet wide
and forty-five feet long. In the left-hand end of one of
the shorter walls is a large door ten feet wide and
fifteen feet high.

If you wish to open it, turn to 14.

In the centre of the opposite wall, five feet above the
floor is a square opening rather over two feet across.

If you wish to scramble through it, turn to 196.

10

You have reached a comer in the five foot wide

passage. Looking in one direction, you can see a room
five feet away, with at least one dead Hound on the

11

floor (possibly two, depending on when you discovered
the way to open the secret door).

If you are coming from the room, the passage turns
right at this comer and ends at another door five feet
away. The door appears to be made of stone, with an
iron, ring-shaped handle on the right-hand side.

If you wish to go to the door and try the handle, turn
to 58.

If you prefer to return to the last room, turn to 336 if
both Hounds are killed, or 320 if you have only
killed one.

11

The door opens away from you, revealing a well-lit
room fifteen feet high and thirty feet square. Your
entry seems to have woken a large feline animal,
which spits and snarls at you. Although you have never
seen a live one before, you recognize a Cheetah from
pictures in old books. They were once semi-
domesticated and used for hunting, but are now
generally supposed to be extinct.

Crouching, it snarls again, and seems ready to spring,
however, you notice a slim chain hangs from a collar
about its neck, with the other end attached to a metal
ring set in the wall.

Otherwise, the only items of note in the room are a
shiny black panel set in the ceiling above the
mid-point of the wall to your left, a brightly shining
yellow panel set in the ceiling opposite that, a heap of
straw and a large bowl in the far left-hand corner from
the door, which is set in the middle of the wall
opposite the Cheetah.

12-13

If you enter the room to investigate further, turn to
111.

Otherwise you leave, shutting the door behind you
and should turn to 97.

12

Looking down the shaft at the end of this short passage,
you see that it is five feet wide and three feet across. It
narrows perceptibly as it descends, and ends five feet
below. There seems to be a sheet of glass across the
bottom of the shaft, but you cannot make out what
may be beyond it.

You could probably break the glass if you were to lean
far enough down the shaft, and if you wish to do this,
turn to 44.

There is a metal rod running down the right-hand side
of the shaft, grooved along part of its length, ft is fixed
to the side of the glass panel at the bottom, and ends at
a square metal box near the top. You feel it may be
used to open the glass panel, but cannot figure out how
it works.

Otherwise, there is nothing else of interest here.
Moving away from the shaft, you come to a corner five
feet away where the passage turns right.

You should turn to 301.

13

You open the stone door and find a large room beyond;
so large, in fact, that you can only see a section of the
floor and the walls on either side of the door. There are
steps down into the room, which is dark and silent,
while there are carvings on the wall and a large statue
to your left.

You have woken a large feline animal

14-15

To discover more, enter the room, and turn to 116.
The door will close as you do so.

If you wish to go back into the passage, turn to
253.

14

You have opened a large door, ten feet wide and
fifteen feet high. On one side is a long, empty room,
twenty-five feet wide and forty-five feet long.

If you wish to enter this room, turn to 9.

On the other side is a much larger room. This door is
in one corner but the walls on each side disappear
into the darkness. You can hear the sound of steadily
dripping water and the air feels warm and damp.

If you wish to investigate this room, turn to IS.

Both rooms are in darkness, apart from the light of
your torch.

15

You have reached a comer in the passage.

Looking in one direction you can see a crossroads
only five feet away, where three other passages meet
the one you are in.

If you go to the crossroads, turn to 255.

If you have just come fi-om there, the passage turns
right at the corner where you stand. Looking in the
other direction, you can see another passage comes
in from the right forty feet away, while your passage
continues beyond.

Should you wish to travel as far as the side
passage, turn to 319.

16-17

16

You manage to haul yourself up to a five-foot-wide,
ten-foot-high passage which leads directly away from
the room below, and some five feet above its ceiling.
The passage only goes five feet before it enters
another, running to left and right. It is quite dark in
this passage, although enough light has filtered up
from below to illuminate this far.

If you have a source of illumination with you, you
will be able to see more, and should turn to 321.

If you have no light source, or left it in the room,
you will have to go back to 217.

17

You have arrived at a point where three passages
meet.

One leads to another T-junction only ten feet away,
where this passage continues and another turns off to
the right.

If you move there, turn to 71.

At a ninety degrees clockwise angle to the first, the
second passage ends at a door five feet away.

If you go to the door, turn to 267.

Opposite that, the third passage runs ten feet to
another door.

If you go to that one, turn to 287.

Set in the wall facing the end of the first passage are
two small alcoves. Each holds a looped cross, which
you believe is called an ankh and has religious
significance for certain tribes.

18-19

If you try to remove either of them, turn to 200.

18

You have now travelled for three nights, the same as
did the burned man. He covered some distance by
day as well, but probably failed to move as fast as
you, despite having the wind behind him. This
suggests that the sand-filled depression may be close
at hand, and you decide to brave the last hour of sun
and heat to seek a higher vantage point to look for it.

Setting olf uphill you climb to a point a few hundred
feet above the surrounding desert. The evening air is
clear and you can see for many miles in all
directions, including back across the dunes you
crossed last night.

In fact, you can see that the dunes surround the hilly
area where you are now, which seems to cover a
roughly circular area of some ten miles across.
Unless the burned man miscounted the days, the
depression must be somewhere amongst these hills.

As darkness falls, you set out to seek it, if necessary
by quartering the hills until dawn.

Turn to 50.

19

You have reached a point where four passages meet.
Reading clockwise your choices are as follows:

If you turn to 199 you will travel thirty-five feet to
a point where the passage ends at a T-junction.

If you turn to 371 you will travel fifteen feet. Then
the passage ends at a closed door.

The ankhs have religious significance for certain tribes.

You suppose the room is for bathing.

20-21

If you turn to 247 you will travel fifteen feet. Then
the passage ends at a closed door.

If you turn to 31 you will travel fifteen feet. Then the
passage ends at a closed door.

20

Opening the door, you find a fifteen foot wide passage
beyond it which runs from left to right. Some nine feet
to the right it ends at a massive pair of doors.

If you wish to examine them more closely, turn to
147.

To your left, the passage turns a corner to the right
after only ten feet. You can make out a faint glow of
daylight and smell fresh air in that direction.

If you move to the corner, turn to 111.

Whichever way you go, the door will swing shut
behind you.

21

The main feature of this room is the square pool of
water in the centre. This measures twenty feet along
each side and is surrounded by a ten foot wide floor. All
around the walls are hooks with long white towels
hanging from them, and you can only suppose this is
some form of bathing or cleansing room. Perhaps it has
some significance to the religion of those who come
here.

The water is still and dark from the usual black stone
blocks with which the sides of the pool and the floor
and ceiling of the room have been constructed. Only
the walls of the room have been painted white. There
are a number of torch-holders around the walls, several

22

of which hold partly consumed torches. You can light
these with your own torch, if you wish. Indeed, you
need not even use your own torch for this, as a
tinderbox, with flint and steel, lies on a small table
against the wall between the two passages.

If you test the water you will find it cold, and rather
unpleasant to the taste.

Should you decide to enter the water, turn to 245.
When you emerge, you may use the towels to dry
yourself.

There are two passages leaving the room, one
leading from each end of one wall. Both are painted
white and lead into another room after ffteen feet.
If you leave the room by the left-hand passage turn
to 133, and if you take the right-hand one turn to
357.

22

You decide to feign ignorance of what lies behind you,
and carry on. Occasional checks in your mirror
confirm that something is following you, or perhaps
someone, as it appears to travel more or less upright on
two legs. Unfortunately, he, she or it, keeps to the
shadows and you cannot get a clear view. Dawn is now
approaching, the stars are fading, and you will soon
have to seek shelter for the day ahead.

Looming up before you is one of the occasional
thorn-trees which somehow find enough moisture to
survive in the desert. Some of its fallen branches by the
base of the trunk provide sufficient cover for you to
hide and see just what creature is following you. You
should also be able to gain SURPRISE if you attack as it
passes.

23-25

There is a faint paling of the Eastern sky which tells
you dawn is almost here, and if you lie in wait, turn
to 150.

Otherwise you carry on and try to find a cave in
which to spend the coming day. In this case turn to
86.

23

You are in the imposing entrance hall of the pyramid.
Twenty feet wide, thirty feet long, and twenty-five feet
high it leads into the darkness within. You are able to
make out wide passages leading off to either side, but
the light is fairly dim back there as the walls of square
black stone blocks seem to absorb the sunlight from
the entrance.

If you go back outside, turn to 331.

If you move on into the interior, you will need to
light a torch. You can see cressets halfway up the
walls which are obviously intended as torch
holders, but they are both empty and unreachable.
Turn to 129 when you have lit a torch: if you don't
have one you will have to go back out.

24

You press your ear close to the door, but are unable to
hear anything beyond.

Turn back to 267 and decide if you wish to open it.

25

This room proves to be fifty feet wide, seventy-five feet
long, and forty feet high. Much of the space is taken up
with strange items which serve some purpose you can
only guess at.

26

There are large spheres which seem to be made of
copper, supported near the ceiling on metal frames.
They are connected with many yards of twisted
copper tubes, most of which pass through a large
black chest, which feels warm to the touch, as do
some of the tubes emerging from it. In the cenfre is a
pool which is fed by several dripping tubes, and
around the pool stand several empty buckets. These
buckets are nearly four feet high and three feet
across, and no normal man could lift one when full,
you are sure.

There are two doors, and whichever you entered
through will have swung shut behind you.

One is in the right-hand end of one of the longer
walls. If you wish to open that one, turn to 14.

The other is twenty -five feet from the right-hand
end of the opposite wall, and if you prefer to open
that one, turn to 30.

Both doors are ten feet wide and fifteen feet high and
there are several dark glass panels in the ceiUng.

26

Climbing the ladder until your head is just below the
dark, shiny panel, you examine it in the light of your
torch. It seems to be made of glass, or some similar
material, and is set flush with the ceiling, with no
way of removing it that you can see.

There seems to be a space beyond, but if you are
to investigate further you will have to break the
panel. If you decide to try to smash it with your
weapon, turn to 298.

If you decide on any other course, or prefer to

Water drips into the pcx)l.

27-29

move the ladder to one side before breaking the
panel, you descend the ladder and should turn to
330.

27

The ring proves to be firmly fixed to the wall.
Twisting, turning, pushing and pulling all prove
equally ineffective.

Turn back to 355.

28

Climbing 100 feet of rope is not an especially difficult
task for one so fit as you. Calculate E + 4H - T: you
need a score of 10 to succeed and may sacrifice Fortune
Points to modify your score if necessary. If you succeed
you reach the room above. Whether you left your torch
burning up there or not, you will need to light a new
one now.

When you have amended your Character Sheet, turn
to 388, bearing in mind that the bucket is still
lowered.

If you wish to raise it again, turn to 356.

Should you fail to achieve the requisite score above,
you will lose your grasp on the rope when nearing
the top, and plummet into the depths, bouncing
from wall to wall. Turn to 289.

29

The underwater passage proves to be twenty-five feet
long, and at each end there is a pool situated in a large
room. It is most probable that one of these rooms will
be in darkness, unless you have previously passed this

30

way and left burning torches behind you. However
the pools are of different sizes.

One is twenty feet square and twenty feet deep,
with the passage leading from one side five feet
above the bottom of the pool. If you have swum
into this pool having left torches burning in the
room, turn to 21. Otherwise, the room will be in
darkness, and you should turn to 173.

The other pool is only ten feet square and fifteen
feet deep, so the underwater passage is right at the
bottom. If you have arrived in this pool, and
surface to find the room in darkness, turn to 61.

If you left torches burning in here earlier, turn to
93.

30

You have opened a large door, ten feet wide and
fifteen feet high. On one side there is a large dark
room, whose dimensions you cannot determine from
here, although you can see one side wall twenty-five
feet away to your left. The air feels warm and damp
and you can hear dripping water.

If you wish to enter this room, turn to 25.

On the other side is a twenty-five foot wide passage,
which is quite well lit by a number of shining yellow
panels set into the ceiling some forty feet above. You
can see a side turning on the left over a hundred feet
away.

If you move to that point, turn to 41.

This doorway is on the left-hand side of the end wall
of the passage.

31-33

31

You stand by a closed stone door with an iron, ring-
shaped handle.

If you wish to turn the handle and open the door,
turn to 383.

If you wish to move away from the door, after fifteen
feet you will reach a point where four passages meet.
Turn to 19.

32

Yes, well worth trying, and you may add 1 Fortune
Point to your Character Sheet for thinking of it !

Unfortunately, nothing happens — the control
mechanism must be somewhere else.

Turn back to 81 and choose again.

33

Hastily you scramble to your feet. You can hear and
feel the snakes around you, but your overwhelming
need is for light. Hastily you fumble for a fresh torch
from your pack and scratch a spark from your flint and
steel into the tinderbox.

This all takes several seconds, and twice you feel fangs
sink into your legs before the torch is alight. Sweeping
the torch around you causes the serpents to retreat a
little, but you have already taken 4 points of damage
and can be certain the bites are poisonous.

If you have a Nostrum of Venom Disperson (as opposed
to a Potion of Healing, which is not effective against
poison) now is the time to drink it; otherwise you will
be dead within minutes and must turn to 289.

Should you drink a Nostrum, turn to 376.

34-35

34

Lighting a torch does little to help, as although you
can keep the creatures off when thrusting the flaming
end at them, others immediately sneak in from the
other side.

While trying to fend off a snapping, foot-long Lizard,
you feel a sharp pain above the ankle where a
Scorpion has managed to pierce the stout leather of
your boot. You suffer 1 point of damage and must
sacrifice 2 Fortune Points, otherwise the poison will
stun you long enough for the creatures to overwhelm
you.

If the damage kills you, or you do not have 2
Fortune Points available, turn to 289.

Otherwise, turn to 130 if you wish to retreat to the
rocky slopes you left, which were clear of these
creatures, or 178 if you wish to carry on towards
the centre of the valley.

35

You lower yourself down the shaft, hanging
somewhat awkwardly by your hands (since one of
them holds a lighted torch). By stamping hard on the
glass panel you are able to break it, and the shards
tinkle on the floor below. There is a snarl from the
animal in the room, and the rattle of its chain as it
makes one or two springs towards you.

Although it cannot reach your dangling feet, you cart
see it is ready for you to descend, and you can well
imagine you would take considerable damage both
from the floor and its attacks before you could hit
back.

If you decide to drop in to join it, then turn to 111.

36-37

Should you prefer to pull yourself back up into the
passage above, turn to 195.

36

You hang by your hands for a moment, then drop down
the shaft into the room below.

Some three feet below the level of the ceiling, you are
brought to a halt when your feet meet a springy
surface. They sink in slightly, and only the fact that
your head, arms and upper body are still in the shaft
enables you to stay upright.

Bending your knees, you are able to duck your head
into the room and look around. It is as if you are
standing on a vast, wobbly jelly, which fills a fifteen
foot square room nearly to the ceiling.

You try to turn round, but your feet have sunk into the
jelly. As you try to drag one fi-ee, your boot comes df
and in your cramped awkward position you again
nearly lose your balance.

Grabbing for your boot, you touch the surface with
your bare flesh, and feel a stinging pain.

Turn to 244.

37

Calculate E + 4H-T as outlined in the Game System.

If you score 16 or better you will be able to open the
door, and you may use Fortune Points to adjust your
score.

If you fail, you will lose your grasp on the handle and
fall into the black space below (having dropped your
torch earlier), losing 3 Points from your Vitality in the
process.

38-39

Turn to 33 if you fail, unless the fall kills you, in
which case turn to 289.

Ifyou succeed, turn to 181.

38

This is a fifteen foot square room, with another giant
Hound tethered by ten feet of chain in the diagonally
opposite comer to the first one — on your far right as
you face away from the ladder and shaft.

There are two more panels set in the ceiling. One is
directly across the room from the one through which
you entered, and is the source of the bright yellow light
which illuminates the room. The other is about two
feet square in the centre of the ceiling, and glows dull
red. A considerable warmth radiates from it.

In the centre of the right-hand wall is a closed door, and
you would have to fight the second Hound to reach it.
There is an open door in the far end of the left-hand
wall, and you see that neither Hound would have been
able to reach that one.

Ifyou pass through the open door, turn to 252.

Ifyou decide to kill the second Hound, turn to 284.

Ifyou prefer to leave by the way you entered, turn to
348. This option is only available if you used a
ladder to descend into the room.

If you decide to search the rest of that part of the
room which the second Hound cannot reach, turn to
380.

39

You have reached a comer.

40-41

Looking in one direction the passage runs as far as you
can see into the darkness without any item of note.

If you go that way, turn to 7.

If you have just come from that direction, the passage
turns right, where you are, and carries on for thirty-five
feet before turning right again.

Turn to 303 if you wish to proceed to that corner.

40

You have hauled yourself up to a five foot wide, ten
foot high passage which turns out to be only five feet
long. At one end is a narrow shaft leading down into a
dark room, and at the other, passages lead off at
right-angles to left and right.

You move on to this point to check the new
passages, and should turn to 157.

41

This passage proves to be 140 feet long, twenty-five
feet wide and thirty feet high. At one end there is a
door, ten feet wide and fifteen feet high, in the
left-hand side of the twenty-five foot wall.

If you open that door, turn to 30.

Just to the right of the door, about five foot above the
floor is a round glass panel some twelve inches across
You inspect this and give it a tentative prod. There is a
click, the panel gives slightly, and a faint light appears
behind it. You can still see nothing through the glass
however, and it appears to be opaque.

If you were to open the door (30) now, you would find
that the room beyond was well lit by a number of

42-43

glowing yellow panels in the ceiling, much as in this
passage. Pressing this panel again would cause them to
go out.

At the other end of the passage are a pair of massive
metal doors which are obviously designed to slide in
and out of openings in the walls to close the passage,
which continues beyond. They seem to be stuck, as the

left-hand one is fully extended while the right-hand

one only protrudes a few inches.

If you wish to look through, turn to 105.

There is a similar pair of doors in the last twenty-five
feet of the left-hand wall, if you are coming from the
small door at the far end. This time the right-hand door
is fully out, while the left-hand one barely protrudes.

If you wish to look through the twelve-foot gap
there, turn to 110.

42

The pseudopod grows larger as it reaches you: the
feature is obviously able to force its bulk through the
opening and adopt any shape it wishes. The mouth

grows into a gaping maw, and tentacles grow around it,
reaching to pull you within. Determined to fight to the
last, you lunge forward with your sword hoping to

reach a vital part deep within.

Darkness envelops you as the terror of the moment
brings merciful oblivion.

Turn to 289.

43

You have come roughly halfway along a straight
retch of passageway.

44-45

In one direction the passage turns a comer to the left
twenty-five feet away. If you move to this corner,
turn to 99.

In the opposite direction, there is a corner where the
passage turns right after thirty feet. If you go to this
corner, turn to 299.

44

One way or another you will be able to break the glass
panel at the bottom of the five feet deep shaft, and
sections of the glass fall into a space below.

Surprisingly, there is little noise of breaking glass,
which you would expect if the pieces had fallen on to a
stone floor. Leaning down, you try to make out what
lies below.

There seems to be a considerable space down there, at
least fifteen feet wide and about twice that in depth,
you estimate. There is something odd about the floor,
and eventually you realize what it is. The whole floor
is crawling with snakes: you are staring down into a
snake-pit.

Revolted, you recoil from the shaft, and hastily move
back to the comer behind you.

Turn to 301.

45

You decide to break the black ceiling panel and,
bracing yourself at the top of the ladder, you draw a
weapon. With a powerful upward lunge you thrust it
through the panel, which disintegrates, showering

shards of glass around you.

The panel was two feet long and one foot wide and you

46-47

now see that a shaft of somewhat wider dimensions
extends a few feet upwards, and what looks like a
passage leads away from the wall of the room, some
five feet above it.

You feel that, by standing on the very top of the ladder
you will be able to get your arms and shoulders into the
shaft and could probably worm your way up to the

passage above.

If you wish to try this, turn to 161.

Otherwise, turn back to 217 and choose again.

46

Descending the rope presents a little difficulty, since it
is suspended from the centre of the winch drum, five
feet out from the side of the shaft. You, therefore, have
to clamber out on to the drum and swing down on to
the rope below.

Calculate E + 4H: you need a score of 15 to succeed
and may use Fortune Points to modify your score if

necessary.

If you fail, you plummet down the shaft and should
turn to 289.

If you succeed you descend safely and should turn
to 142.

47

You stand at a corner in a passage and may move in
either direction.

If you turn to 135 you will travel forty feet to a point
where four passages meet

48-50

Should you have come from that direction, the
passage turns left here, and only ten feet away from
you turns left again. If you go that way, turn to 379.

48

The floor turns out to be hinged at a point ten feet to
the right of the 'door' you tried to open, and the hinged
section is twenty-five feet long, with you standing
approximately in the middle.

As the floor swings downwards, you go with it: when
the tilting section reaches an angle of sixty degrees
with the floor above, it stops with a bang, and you
tumble down to the end and off into space.

Turn to 96.

49

You have come to a corner in the passage.

In one direction you see the passage ends at a door
only five feet away. If you move to examine the
door, turn to 343.

If you face this short passage to the door, the other
passage leads off at right-angles to your left as far as
you can see. Thirty-five feet away a side passage
comes in from the right, and you should turn to 325
if you go that way.

50

Soon after midnight, the low hills fall away before you
and there is what can only be your destination
Somehow an almost perfectly circular valley has been
formed in the hills, about three miles across as far as
you can judge in the faint light from the stars.

51

The surrounding hills slope down to a sea of sand,
almost completely flat apart from a solitary small hill
in the centre, which comes to an oddly even-shaped
point. You cannot make out details at this distance,
but are sure this must be the pyramid-topped dune.

Nothing appears to mar the surface of the sand, but you
will be able to see better by daylight. The question is
whether you wish to stay here until dawn, then circle
the valley in the heat of day, or cross to the centre now,
and see what you can make of the sandy expanse from
there tomorrow.

You can see no sign of lights or movement
anywhere. If you stay here, turn to 82, while if you
set out across the sand now, turn to 66.

51

As you walk along this passage, the floor suddenly
opens beneath your feet and you find yourself falling.

The trap is only sprung when you reach the centre of a
fifteen-foot-long section of floor. Then five-foot-square
sections of floor, hinged at either end, and 5 feet by 2
feet 6 inch sections, hinged at the sides, all fall at once.
To reach safety you therefore need to throw yourself
several feet forwards or backwards.

This is a test of dexterity, and perhaps luck too.
Calculate E -i- 4H: you will need a score of 15 to reach
the solid floor in front, or 16 to reach that behind. You
may, however, add 1 point to your score for every 3
Fortune Points you cross off your Character Sheet.

If you manage a score of 15 or 16 you may turn to the
appropriate paragraph for the end of the passage you
reach. (255 is a crossroads and 219 a T-junction.)

52

However, in catching the edge of the floor to save
yourself you wiU have dropped whatever you were
carrying in your hands. Such item(s) now lie in the pit
some twelve feet below, amongst the forest of spikes
you will be able to see when you light another torch.
Amend your Character Sheet accordingly.

The pit remains open.

If your score comes to 14 or less, you were unable to
save yourself and should turn to 337.

52

You have entered a large room which extends thirty
feet away from you and forty feet from right to left. The
doorway by which you entered is fifteen feet fi-om the
right-hand wall.

There are two other doorways, one at the left-hand end
of the opposite wall, and one at the left-hand end of the
left-hand wall. The doors in both stand open. If you
leave by the first, turn to 362, and turn to 388 if you
take the second.

Along the right-hand wall, and the one through which
you entered, are plain stone benches, which look most
uncomfortable. By way of contrast there are six tables
scattered around the room, each some seven feet long,
three feet wide and four feet high, and these are
covered in deep cushions.

The left-hand wall has a number of deep shelves,
holding a variety of glasses, beakers, bowls and ever,
buckets. Several of the buckets, standing on the floor
below, hold water, and you may drink and/or fill your
waterskin from these. It tastes rather flat and stale, but
is not harmful.

Everything you are carrying falls into the pit.

53-54

On a shelf at head-height you find four small bottles of
the type which normally hold Potions. Three of them
hold a blue liquid and one orange. If you wish to test
these, the only way to determine their effect is to taste
them. This can be dangerous.

First make a note of this paragraph number, then to
test a blue one, turn to 84, and to try the orange one,
turn to 132.

Should you wish to take them along untested, mark
your Character Sheet '3 bottles blue liquid 84' and
'1 bottle orange liquid 132'. If you subsequently
wish to try them, remember to record the paragraph
where you are at the time before turning to the one
which details the effect.

If you leave by the door through which you
originally entered, turn to 295.

53

Carefully you remove the lid from one of the boxes,
and find that it contains some white, scented powder.

Other boxes contain various powders and coloured
pastes, while the bottles hold scented liquids. This
seems to be a chamber used by the females of the tribe
to decorate themselves, possibly in readiness for
religious ceremonies.

// you wish to remove the cloth from the frame
amongst the mirrors, turn to 90.

Otherwise, turn to 357.

54

The desert is a weird place at night. Although there are
wide stretches of soft sand, blown into long rolling

The desert is a weird place at night.

55

dunes by the wind, much of your route hes over bare
stretches of rock. You are able to make good time over
the flatter stretches, but upflung crags often cause you
to make a detour, and it is these outcrops which the
wind and sand have eroded into unearthly shapes. Now
the wind blowing around them produces the sounds
which give the place its name.

Despite the inhospitable nature of the terrain, there is
life in the desert. You occasionally see small pairs of
eyes reflecting the faint starlight, and scuttling noises
come from the shadows of the outcrops as you skirt
them. Once you hear a distant scream as some creature
meets its end, probably fmm a desert fox or wolf.

You have been marching for fifty minutes (roughly)
each hour, then resting for ten minutes, throughout
much of the night when you begin to get the feeling
that something is following. Several times you sense
movement behind you, as you glance in your mirror.
Now, you are sure a large form has ducked back behind
a massive boulder when you turned round quickly.

If you go back to investigate, turn to 6.

If you carry on and seek a place to he in wait, turn to
22.

If you keep going until daylight, and then look for
somewhere to shelter from the sun, turn to 86.

55

You enter the strangely lit area, but before you have a
chance to examine your surroundings further your
vision blurs and you stagger as if you had missed your
step.

56

When you recover, the room has vanished.

You are now standing at one end of a dark,
five-foot-wide passage. The only illumination is
provided by your torch, and the floor, walls and ceiling
aie formed by the famiUar black blocks of the pjramid.

You have taken no damage, and should turn to
163.

56

You climb the steps to the dais, intending to examine
the statue, but are surprised by a metallic sound as you
step on to the dais itself. It seems as though the surface
is made of one large sheet of metal.

However, now you are up here you examine the
statue. It seems to have been carved from a single
block of sandstone, and not very well carved at that.
The marks of stone-chisels are visible here and there,
the proportions of the body are not quite right,
making it look rather flat and a little too broad, and
the long, thin beak of the bird-like head seems to
have been broken at some time and repaired, as you
can clearly see a crack all around it. In its right hand
the statue holds a sort of cross with a loop at the top,
which you believe is called an ankh.

In the other hand it holds a staff, with one end held a
few inches above the surface of the dais. The other
Old has been shaped to represent a cobra's head.

The ankh has been carved integrally with the
statue, but the staff seems to have been made of a
shiny metal - either silver or platinum. If you try
to remove it, turn to 369.

There is nothing else of interest on the top of the

57-58

dais, so you return to the floor of the room, turning

torn.

57

You cannot, of course, carry a lighted torch while
cUmbing a rope, so your ascent has to be made in the
dark.

Eventually, when you believe you must have climbed
at least a hundred feet, your hand meets a cylinder
above, through which the rope passes. You cannot feel
the sides of the shaft, and must assume that, if it has
stayed ten feet wide all the way up, you are in the
centre.

Reaching as high as you can, you feel the cylinder
above you and find it is about one foot thick. You,
therefore, throw both arms and legs around it,
relinquishing your hold on the rope, and try to work
your way to the end.

This is quite difficult. Calculate E+ 4H-T: you wiU
need a score of 15 to succeed but may sacrifice Fortune
Points to modify this.

If you succeed, you reach the ground, light a torch
and may turn to 359.

Should you fail to achieve this score, you lose your
grip, fall back into the shaft and should turn to 289.

58

You turn the handle, but the door remains immovable:
you realize it is not a door at all, but a section of wall
carved to look like one.

59-60

There is a scraping noise behind you and, spinning
round, you reach the comer in time to see the doors to
the Hounds' room swinging shut: both the second one
by which you just left the room and the door through
which you originally entered it.

An exhaustive search reveals no other way out. You are
imprisoned in a small section of passage with only one
door, and that can only be operated from the room
beyond it.

Even if you extinguish your torch, I am afraid the air in
there will not last long enough for you to survive until
the tribe which frequents the pyramid returns and
discovers you. Still, perhaps that is just as well!

Turn to 289.

59

You prop your ladder against the wall beneath the
shiny dark panel, and climb to investigate. It feels cool
and smooth to the touch, is three feet long, two feet
wide and set flush with the ceiling. There are no
catches or fastenings that you can see, but with your
fece just below the panel you think you can make out a
space above it.

The only way to discover what lies beyond seems to
be to try to break the panel, which appears to be
made of glass. If you wish to do this, turn to 127.

Otherwise you climb down the ladder again and
should turn back to 355.

60

Breaking the panel below will prove no great problem.

61

You can lean down and hit it with a sword, or any
longer weapon; if you have managed to manoeuvre a
ladder along the passages you can lower it down the
shaft and push the panel out, or as a last resort you can
hang by your hands and stamp on it.

One way or another the panel, which is indeed made of
glass, is broken and the shards tinkle on the floor
below. Safe in the passage above, you inspect the area
revealed by the light of your torch. There seems to be a
room down there, fifteen feet high and about the same
across. Should you wish to go down and inspect it, you
may have a problem, as there is nowhere in the passage
for you to secure a rope. (The metal rod is too close to
the wall.)

If you do have a ladder, you will be able to lower it
to the floor below by fastening a rope to the top
rung, and will be able to work your way down the
shaft by pressing arms and back against the side
until your feet reach the ladder. To do this, turn to
92.

Without a ladder, the only alternative is to drop in,
with no way to get back. If this suits you, turn to
396.

Otherwise, you leave the shaft and move to the
other end of the passage, turning to 393.

61

You find yourself in a ten-foot-square pool, set against
one wall of a large room. It is possible to climb out on
any of the other three sides.

If you have no illumination, you will be able safely to

62-63

feel your way around until you find a small table with
flint, steel and tinderbox thoughtfully placed thereon.
You will then be able to light some of the torches
stationed along one wall.

Should you have brought your own fire-making
equipment along, you will save having to feel your way
around the room.

Either way, when you have illumination, turn to
189.

62

This passage is twenty-five feet wide and proves to be
eighty feet long. At one end it opens into a room with a
shaft leading up through the ceiling: if you enter this
room turn to 142.

At the other end there is a mighty pair of doors which
extend to the ceiling thirty feet above and fill the width
of the passage. They seem to be made of metal.
Half-way along the passage, on the left-hand side
coming from the room, are another such pair of doors.
There are a number of dark glass panels set in a row
along the centre of the ceiling.

If you move to investigate the doors at the end of the
passage, turn to 78, while if you go to the ones in the
centre, turn to 94.

63

You stand before a stout wooden door. There is a large,
round doorknob which appears to be made of a smooth.

64-65

66

shiny material like red glass. If you turn the handle and
push the door open, turn to 279.

If you leave the door and proceed in the opposite

direction, you will quickly reach the end of this
passage, ten feet away, where others lead df to left and
right.

Turn to 123.

64

You manage to scramble clear of the Monolith, which
lies motionless on the floor for some time, before
gradually starting to alter its shape in order to resume
its pose at the end of the passage. Over its recumbent
form you can see that the passage reaches a dead end
here, so you will have to return to the comer behind
you.

There is no point in attacking the Monolith - your
weapons cannot harm it and its only form of attack is
the crushing fall on an unwary victim.

You may take any Potions, or have a meal if you wish -
it will take the Monolith at least an hour to regain
position.

When ready, turn to 131, after making any
necessary amendments to your Character Sheet.

65

You decide to break the right-hand ceiling pane.
Steadying yourself on the ladder, you draw a weapon
and strike upwards at the centre of the glass. There is

splintering crash, and shards of glass fall around you to
the floor.

Above the broken panel is a slightly larger space,
perhaps three feet by eighteen inches, which leads
upwards and widens further up. In fact, holding your
torch up in the shaft, you can see that there is a passage
treading away from the room, some five feet above it.

If you wish to climb up to investigate further, turn
toll.

Otherwise go back down the ladder and turn to 344.

66

You decide to cross the sand now, so that you can
inspect the area from the centre tomorrow, thus
hopefully saving the necessity to tramp all around the
alley in the baking sun.

Thankful to have only another mile or two to travel

night, you descend the rocky slope, which is quite
smooth and gentle, and set off across the almost flat
expanse of soft sand.

Before you have gone more than a hundred yards, you
become aware that you are not alone on the sands,
wherever you look, small forms slither and scurry;
snakes, lizards, rodents, scorpions and insects are all
easy preying on each other but, as you pause, you see
that most appear to be moving your way. You realize
that you probably represent a good meal for several
score of them, and quite a number are well-enough
equipped with poisonous fangs and stings to ensure
they get it. A fire would probably keep them at bay, but
you cannot carry one along with you.

You are not alone on the sands.

67-68

If you carry on, lighting a torch to try to keep them
off, turn to 34.

If you prefer to retreat to the rocky slopes and wait
for dawn, as these creatures will surely shelter from
the heat during the day, turn to 114.

67

Standing by a shaft leading down through the passage
door, you can see that it is only five feet deep, but with
a window at the bottom through which you can see a
room some fifteen feet high. The sides of the hole taper
noticeably, so that although the shaft is five feet by
three feet at the top, the window at the bottom is only
three feet by two feet. A slim rod runs down one side of
the shaft, but if it is intended as a means to open the
window you cannot tell how it works.

Nothing seems to be moving in the room below, which
is lit rather dimly by a strange reddish glow, but you
can see a door in one wall close by the window.

If you wished to, you could probably enter the room
below by lowering yourself down the shaft, kicking the
window in, and dropping the fifteen feet to the floor
below. The floor looks like hard stone, however, and
you doubt that you could accomplish this without
suffering damage.

Nonetheless, if that is what you wish, turn to 175.

If you decide to leave the shaft alone, turn back to
119.

68

You decide to throw a burning torch down the shaft
into the room below, hoping to solve the mystery of

69-70

the suspended glass shards. These passages within the
pyramid are no place to travel without illumination
however, and you will only take this course if you have
a second torch, or perhaps a lantern, which you light
first.

If you have no second source of illumination you
will have to abandon the plan and turn back to 378.

Otherwise, you amend your Character Sheet
accordingly and turn to 148.

69

Carefully, you examine the designs on the walls
wondering whether they contain any messages, cryptic
clues or even secret catches to open hidden doors
Unfortunately you meet with no success. Peering at
the intricate designs does, however, produce one
result; your eyesight becomes impaired to such an
extent that your Expertise score is reduced by 1 point
for the remainder of the adventure.

The only way to avoid this sad deterioration is to take a
Healing Potion, if you have one to spare. This will not
only restore your eyesight to normal, but also have the
usual effect on any damage you have suffered, as per
the Game System.

Amend your Character Sheet accordingly, then turn
back to the paragraph number you noted.

70

You prop your ladder against the wall beneath the
panel which emits the yellow light, and climb to
examine it. The light is too bright to scare directly at it
so you have to feel around it with your fingertips, it
seems to be made of smooth glass, feels slightly warm

71-72

and appears to have no fastenings, being flush with the
ceiling.

The only way to discover what lies beyond seems to
be to break it If you decide to do this, you should
first make a note of this paragraph number. Then, if
you draw a weapon and strike at the centre of the
panel, turn to 397.

If you prefer first to move the ladder to the side, so
that you are not directly below the panel, turn to
285.

Should you decide not to take any further action
with regard to the panel, turn to 166.

71

Three passages meet here in a T-junction, and you are
racing down the 'upright' of the 'T'. You can see a
passage turns off to the left twenty-five feet away,
while this passage continues .

To your right a passage runs ten feet and ends where
passages turn off to both sides. To your left the passage
only goes five feet before turning left.

Turn to 391 if you take the passage ahead.

Turn to 17 if you take the one to your right.

Turn to 363 if you take the one to your left.

72

An agile adventurer like you should not have too much
difficulty in 'chimneying' up the five feet to the
passage above. Calculate E -i- 4H-T as per the Game
system: you will need a score of 15 or better to

73-74

succeed, but may use Fortune to achieve this if
necessary.

If you fail, you will fall to the floor breaking the ladder

irreparably, and suffering 3 points of damage, which
you should deduct from your Vitality score.

If you succeed, and climb up to the passage above,
turn to 40.

It is possible that you are actually climbing down
into the room. However you reach the floor, turn to
344.

73

You have opened a ten-foot-wide, fifteen-foot-high
door.

On one side is a fifty-foot-square room with a shaft
leading up through the thirty-foot-high ceiling near
one comer, and a twenty-five-foot-wide passage
leading away from the right-hand side of the opposite
wall.

If you enter this room, turn to 142.
On the other side, a twenty-five-foot-wide passage
leads away to your left as far as you can see in the
darkness.

If you wish to go that way, turn to 89.

74

You step over the threshold and are immediately
brought up short. There is a sharp tingling sensation
affecting any areas of exposed flesh, and you find
something is pressing over your face, preventing you
fi-om breathing.

75

This entire room is occupied by Giant Amoeba. These
monsters are completely transparent and live by
ingesting flesh, bone, leather, wood and other organic
materials, but not metal or stone. Having no shape of
their own, they will adapt themselves to the shape
dictated by their surroundings. They are known to
avoid sunlight, which causes a darkening of the surface
area, but the only known way to kill them is to
sprinkle acid on them, which apparently poisons them
through juices which they use on their prey. Wine or
vinegar will also damage them. Your immediate need,
however, is to break free before the anaesthetic touch
of the Amoeba renders you unconscious.

To do this you must first expend 2 Fortune Points to
retain your senses.

Secondly, calculate E -i- 4H, and modify the result by
using further Fortune Points if necessary to achieve a
score of 16.

If you manage both, you will be able to wrench
yourself free, and back away, slamming the door
shut. In this case amend your Character Sheet
appropriately and turn to 106.

If you fail, probably through having too few Fortune

Points left, you will lose consciousness and will
soon leave only a few more items on the floor to
mark your passing.

Turn to 289.

75

With your attention on the door, the Cheetah is able to

attack your defenceless back, inflicting 3 points of
damage with its teeth and claws.

76-77

If you sacrifice 2 Fortune Points (amending your
Character Sheet accordingly) you will be able to dive
through the narrowing portal and escape; the Cheetah
being unable, to follow in time.

However, should you be unable, or unwilling, to delete
the Fortune Points, you will be unable to reach the
door before it closes and your opponent attacks again.

In this case, turn to 183.

In either case, do not forget to note the damage you
have suffered on your Character Sheet.

76

With the first Hound out of action, you are able to
work your way down the shaft, then drop the last
fifteen feet or so to the stone floor below. This still
does some damage, and you must deduct 2 Vitality
Points from your Character Sheet.

If this kills you, turn to 289; otherwise turn to 38.

77

You find that the shaft is some three feet wide and two
feet across. There is a contraption of jointed rods fixed
to the right-hand wall, the purpose of which is not
apparent to you. The shaft ends five feet below in an
opening two feet wide and one foot across, which is
obviously set in the ceiling of a room, close by one
wall.

The room below is well lit, almost as bright as
daylight.

(a) If you have just come up that way, you will see
there are a few shards of glass around the opening
and others below, around the foot of a ladder which

78

is propped against the wall. The floor of the room
is sandy, and the air coming up the shaft is
noticeably warm. You will just be able to spot the
dead body of a Giant Scorpion to one side.

(b) If you did not come up this shaft, then there
will be an unbroken window at the bottom, no
ladder and the Giant Scorpion will be moving
around.

Having investigated this short passage you return
to the long passage and should turn to 321.

78

When you approach within five feet of these doors
they slide open, disappearing into slots in the walls.
The doors themselves prove to be one foot thick and
the weight must be enormous. Fascinated, you step
away and the doors slide out of the walls to close the
passage again.

Once more you move forward, the doors open, and
you are able to look through.

On one side is a dark passage, leading further than
you can see in the darkness, although you can make
out another, similar pair of doors in the right-hand
wall twenty-five feet away.

If you enter the passage, turn to 62.

On the other side is an enormous well-lit area, so
large and bright that for a moment you think you
have emerged into the open.

If you enter this area, turn to 158.

79-81

79

You stand facing a closed, stout-looking wooden door
at the right-hand end of the passage wall. Immediately
to your right is the five-foot-wide wall at the end of the
passage.

Looking to your left, you can see the open pit
stretching fifteen feet to the comer, where the passage
turns left. There is no way you can jump this, as you
have only a five feet square of floor fi-om which to
launch yourself.

The door appears to open away from you, and there is a
square metal handle on the left-hand side. As you turn
the handle and push the door open there is a grinding
noise fi-om nearby; the door is difficult to move but you
force it open.

As you step through there is a thud from nearby which
vibrates the floor, and the door closes of its own
volition behind you.

Turn to 207.

80

As there is no way you can regain the floor, or climb
around the section which has fallen forward on top of
you, the only available direction is downwards. The
question is, therefore, whether you wish to go down
quickly or slowly.

If you decide on the fast drop, turn to 96. Otherwise
turn to 112.

81

You decide to leave the room. There is another door
opposite the one leading to the Giant Scorpion's room

The pit stretches to the comer.

82

and this may be open or closed depending upon your
previous action. There is, however, no sign of the side
passage which once turned off to the left after ten feet.

Remembering the grinding noise, you search the
left-hand wall of the passage, and find that there is a
section which appears to have moved across to close
the opening. Try as you may, you cannot now shift it,

however.

// you return to the room containing the dead
Scorpion, turn to 217.

If you move on to the further door and open it for the
first time, turn to 187.

If you first try closing 'the door to the dead
Scorpion's room, turn to 32.

Should you reach a stage where you can find no way
out, you settle yourself in a corner and wait for the
end. Turn to 300.

82

You decide to spend the night amongst the rocks above
the circular valley and are about to seek a sheltered
place where you can light a fire, when your eye is
caught by movement on the sands, and you become
aware of a faint background noise.

Venturing down the slope, you see that the surface of
the sand is alive with small creatures: snakes
scorpions, rodents and lizards pursue each other across
the soft sand, burrowing into and out of the surface,
and you wonder how long you would have lasted had
you tried to cross, as many are armed with poisonous
fangs or stings.

Turn to 185.

83-85

83

You have reached a comer in the passage.

In one direction it runs only ten feet to a point where
four passages meet.

If you go there, turn to 135.

If you have come from this crossroads, the passage
takes a right-angled turn to the left here, and runs as far
as you can see into the darkness.

If you proceed in that direction, turn to 315.

84

You quickly identify this as a Healing Potion, having
used them often enough before.

Amend your Character Sheet appropriately; these will
nave the same effect as the standard Potions you set
out with.

Now turn back to the paragraph number you noted.

85

You are fortunate to avoid the spell effects by
sacrificing 5 Fortune Points. Those authorized to open
the chest know the correct Words of Power to stop the
spell operating,but these are naturally unknown to
you.

Opening the chest, you find a small potion bottle
labelled 'Cure Disease', five bags each of which prove
to contain about a hundred gold pieces, and a
two-foot-long iron rod with spiral grooves carved in the
last inch of one end.

If you take any of these items with you, add them to
your Character Sheet, then turn to 133.

86-88

86

The sun eventually rises over the Eastern horizon and
you are able to make out, not far ahead, a large rocky
crag with a number of dark openings which indicate
caves within. There is now no sign of your follower,
and you wonder whether it was a purely nocturnal
animal, or perhaps even a figment of your imagination.

Finding a nice, deep cave you remove your weighty
equipment. If you have already disposed of your
follower, you can settle down to a day's rest, and
should turn to 182.

If you are still waiting to see who or what has been on
your trail, you place your equipment in such a way as
to be visible from the cave mouth, with your tent and
blanket arranged to resemble a sleeping figure. Finding
a hiding place behind some jumbled rocks just outside
the entrance, you settle down for a patient wait.

Turn to 214.

87

You are part of the way down a long, straight passage.
Looking in one direction you can see a comer,
thirty-five feet ahead, where the passage turns right.

If you proceed to the corner, turn to 167.

In the other direction, the passage runs straight for
as far as you can see. You can just make out a door
in the left-hand wall after forty feet, and if you move
to the door, turn to 273.

88

Torch held high, you enter the room, drawing a
weapon and depositing anything else you carry in the
passage outside.

A sleeping figure is visible from the cave mouth.

89

Two forms slink from the pile of straw, splitting to
approach you from both sides, and you recognize them
as Hyenas as they suddenly spring to the attack.
Although normally cowardly, these animals
apparently view you as a threat. Each has Expertise 10
and Vitality 7, and they can do 1 point of damage with
their yellow fangs. However, you are aware that
Hyenas often carry rabies, so a bite could well bring
infection.

As they attack together, you will have to calculate E +
4H for each of them, as well as yourself each time. If
either of them beats your score you will suffer damage,
and you in turn will damage whichever of them you
beat.

If the combat ends in your death, turn to 289.

Should you kill both of them without suffering any
damage, turn to 248.

If you kill them but take one or more bites in the
process, turn to 312.

89

This passage is twenty-five feet wide and is too long for
you to be able to see the far end. There is a noticeable
slope to the ground. However, when you reach the
halfway point you can see both ends, and calculate it
must be a little under 100 feet long.

At one end there is a door, ten feet wide and fifteen feet
high at the end of the wall which is on your right as
you move towards it. This end is at the top of the slope

At the other end is a fifty foot square room. If you are
moving that way, the left-hand wall continues the left-

Two forms sUnk from the pile of straw

90-91

hand wall of the passage, as the room extends to your
right.

If you open the door, turn to 73, while if you
investigate the room, turn to 240.

90

Deftly, you whisk the green cloth aside, then stagger
back appalled at the sight which meets your gaze
Instead of the mirror or picture you might have
expected to see, the frame actually appears to surround
an opening into another room.

Almost filling the opening is the most revolting
creature you have ever seen, or indeed imagined. It
seems to have no fixed shape, and is thrusting towards
you a pseudopod which contains a mouth at the end
several suckers beneath and a couple of eyes on stalks.
You can see further organs and manipulative
extensions studding the mass of its body in the room
beyond, and the whole nauseating creature oozes a
thick green slime.

You try to flee, but it is as if your feet are stuck in a
mass of pitch . . . you can barely move them.

If you draw a weapon to fight the creature, turn to
42.

If you try to fend it off with your flaming torch, turn
to 138.

If you close your eyes and wish for a quick end, turn
to 100.

91

Beyond the door is a large room, lit by a deep red glow.
You immediately recognize the room you recently left

92

in a hasty and involuntary fashion, and soon realize
that this door is at the end where you previously noted
various items in the comers.

The odd thing, you now realize, is that the red glow is
not, in fact, a form of lighting, but appears to exist in a
sharply defined area which does not quite reach this
end of the room. It is as if you are now looking at a
section of an enormous red globe, with the edge or
surface some ten feet away.

As a result, your end of the room is rather dark, and
you still cannot quite make out the objects in the
comers.

If you wish to enter the room, turn to 353.

Should you decide against it, you can shut the door
and turn to 103.

92

Lowering the ladder into place takes a little time, and
you then coil the rest of the rope on the floor of the
passage, hoping it will stay in place so that you can pull
the ladder up again later, should you so wish.

You then work your way down the shaft, carefully
keeping clear of the rope, and finally feel the ladder
beneath your groping toes .

Thankfully you start to descend, but when you are just
clear of the shaft you feel the slap of something against
your legs, and with a sharp stinging sensation you lose
2 Vitality Points. (Amend your Character Sheet and, if
this results in your death, turn to 289.)

Looking somewhat unsteadily over your shoulder, you
see a number of rope-like tendrils have extended

93

towards you from a recess above a door in the centre of
the fifteen foot long wall on the right-hand side of the
room. Two have struck you and several more are close
at hand.

If you tried to reach the door, you doubt if you could do
so without taking enormous damage. The alternatives

seem to be to back into a corner and fight, or try to
climb back up the shaft to the passage above

To fight, turn to 394 and to climb turn to 282.

93

You plunge into the pool but quickly resurface, gasping
at the cold. The water tastes rather unpleasant but
there are no signs of anything dangerous in it.

The torches against the white-tiled wall provide
excellent illumination and, diving below the surface
you can see the pool is fifteen feet deep. Leading away
irom the right-hand end of the side opposite the ladder
is a five foot wide passage, at the very bottom of the
pool.

In order to be able to swim safely, you will have to
leave most of your equipment on the floor of the room.
You can keep a belted weapon and your pack with a
few light items, but the rest will have to be marked on
your Character Sheet as having been left in the
white-tiled pool room.

If you wish to see where this passage leads, you firs:
surface, take a deep breath, then dive down and
propel yourself along it. Then turn to 29.

Otherwise you can climb out of the pool and dry
yourself on the towels, turning to 189.

94-96

94

You approach the massive pair of metal doors. There is
no handle, and although you try to push and slide
them, they are quite unmoving.

A little to the right, some five feet up the wall from the
floor, is a circular metal plate, some twelve inches
across, and there is a similar glass plate on the left of
the doors.

If you wish to try pushing the glass plate, turn to
137.

If you want to try the same with the metal plate,
turn to 126.

If you leave the doors and panels alone, turn to 62.

95

You have come to a corner in the passage. In one
direction you can see a passage turning off to the left
thirty-five feet away, while the passage you are in
continues beyond.

If you move to the junction of the passages, turn to
319.

If you have just come from that point, the passage
turns right here, and runs straight as far as you can see
into the darkness.

Should you proceed that way, turn to 315.

96

The initial drop is through a five foot wide area,
corresponding to the passage above; then the walls
disappear and you are falling through a void. The five

97-98

foot space is, of course, too wide for you to successfully
bridge to halt your progress.

It has been remarked elsewhere that there is nothing

inherently dangerous about a long fall, only the sudden
stop at the bottom. This is so in your case, and once
you stop falling you know no more.

Turn to 289.

97

You stand before a wooden door. There is a black metal
handle formed by three stout strips of metal in the
shape of a triangle.

If you wish to turn the handle and open the door,
turn to 11.

Should you decide to leave the door alone, a passage
leads away from it for twenty feet to a crossroads
where three other passages join it.

Turn to 3.

98

You make your way around the top of the smoothly
sloping rockface which surrounds the sand-filled
depression, until you are roughly due West of the dune
and pyramid. By now it is an hour after dawn, and
already the sun is causing considerable discomfort.

Then you see something which sends you diving for
cover: a line of white-clad beings is filing out on to the
sand from the South, obviously heading towards the
dune. They have emerged from a narrow defile, which
you had not noticed earlier, and there are several more
beings there, holding a group of camels.

99-100

It appears that the beings who killed the fliers may

only visit the pyramid, and not stay there, and it occurs
to you that the fatal incident happened just one week
ago.

Carefully, staying in cover, you seek a place in the
rocks where you can get some shade and watch what
goes on.

Turn to 194.

99

You have reached a corner in the passage.

Looking in one direction, the passage goes twenty
feet before turning a comer to the left. If you go that
way, turn to 239.

If you have just come from that direction, the
passage turns right at your corner.

In the other direction the passage runs straight for as
far as you can see in the darkness. If you head in
that direction, turn to 43.

100

You close your eyes, in the fervent hope that this
strange creature will grant you a quick death.

Oddly enough, nothing happens. Tentatively, you try
to move your feet, only to find no resistance. The
surprise is so great you almost fall over backwards.

Hurriedly, you back until you bump into the wall on
the far side of the room. Opening your eyes, you see the
creature just where you left it, but as you look it starts
to extend the pseudopod towards you, and once again
your feet are stuck.

101

You wonder if there is some form of hypnotic spell
associated with whatever was beneath the cloth.
Quickly checking your bearings, you close your eyes
again and make for one of the doors. Again you find
yourself fi-ee to move.

Although you will be able to escape from this room,
such is your loathing of the creature which appeared
that you find yourself unable to enter it again.
Therefore, if a future paragraph offers you the choice of
turning to 357 you must ignore it. Please note this on
your Character Sheet.

If you wish to leave the room by the passage in the
centre of the wall on your left, turn to 165.

If you prefer to leave by the opening in the
right-hand end of the wall on your right, turn to 21.

101

You have come to a corner in a passage which features
highly decorated walls. Looking in one direction, you
can see the passage opens into a room twenty-five feet
away.

If you wish to enter the room, turn to 133.

If you are coming from the direction of the room, you
will find the passage turns right here and, twenty-five
feet away, reaches another corner where it turns left.

You should turn to 184 if you wish to go on to the
second corner.

Make a note of this paragraph number if you are
going to examine the wall decorations, then turn to
69 if you wish to examine those between the room
and the first corner, or 229 for the walls between the
two comers.

You carefully examine the decorated walls.

102-104

102

You are now free to search this room at your leisure,
but before doing so may rest, eat or take any Potions
you wish (altering your Character Sheet appropriately

if you do).

If you then wish to leave by the open door, turn to
151.

If you wish to open the closed door, turn to 134.

If you wish to leave by the panel in the ceiling,
turn to 348 (this option is only available if you
used a ladder to enter).

To search the rest of the room, turn to 166.

103

The door looks familiar. Made out of stout wooden
planks, it has a large, red glass doorknob.

If you turn the knob and push the door open, turn
to 91.

Should you prefer to stay in this featureless
passage, you can walk back to the other end and
turn to 163.

104

There are four five-foot-wide steps, each one foot high,
leading up to the dais on which stands the large statue.
The dais itself stands two feet higher than the top step,
which you are now on, and is ten feet wide and extends
five feet out from the wall. The bas-relief of the female
is on the level of your step, and you can see the bowl

105

has a small hole leading back into the wall, as if
intended to drain any liquid poured into the bowl.

If you clamber on to the dais to examine the
statue, turn to 56.

If you pour some water into the bowl, turn to 131.
If you return to the floor of the room, turn to 116.

105

You stand by a gigantic pair of one-foot-thick metal
doors, which are obviously intended to close across
the twenty-five-foot-wide, thirty-foot-high passage
which extends over 100 feet on both sides. At some
time in the past the operating mechanism must have
failed, as now one door is fully extended while the
other only protrudes a few inches from its slot in the
wall.

Looking through the twelve foot gap, you can see
that in one direction the passage runs some 140 feet,
ending at a wall in which there is a ten-foot-wide,
fifteen-foot high door on the left-hand side. In the
right-hand wall, immediately outside these doors
where you stand there is another pair, similarly
stuck partly open.

If you enter this passage, turn to 41.

On the other side of the doors the passage continues
for almost 200 feet and ends at a blank wall. There
are three ten-foot openings on the right, evenly
spaced down the passage, with the first some
twenty-five feet away.

You can just make out the sound of voices, probably
coming from the second or third opening.

106-107

If you wish to go as far as the first opening, turn to
169.

The passages on both sides of the doors are well-lit by
shining yellow panels running down the centre of the
ceiUng.

106

Gasping for air, you lean against the closed door,
thankful for your narrow escape.

You realise there is no way that you can combat the
monster in this room, and will therefore be imable to
search it.

Turn to 31.

107

You turn the handle and fmd that the door opens
towards you. AH is dark and quiet on the other side.

With the illumination fix)m your torch, you see a
square room fifteen feet across and fifteen feet in
height. The door is in the centre of one wall, and the
room is completely bare and empty.

If you wish to search the walls for secret doors, turn
to 152.

If you leave the room, turn to 335. If you close the
door after you the description will still apply, but if
you leave it open that difference will obviously need
to be borne in mind.

If you stay in the room and close the door, turn to
216. There is a handle on the inside, much like that
on the outside.

The operating mechanism must have failed

108-110

108

If you have managed to bring a twelve-foot ladder with
you along the narrow passages, you will be able to
lower it into the room below by fastening a rope to the
top rung. Carefully you do this, then lay the rest of the
rope in the passage so that you can pull the ladder up
again if you return this way.

The uproar below continues, but it is now obvious that
the second Hound must be chained up and cannot
reach the area immediately below the shaft.

You work your way down the shaft until your groping
feet reach the top of the ladder, then descend. Once at
the bottom you are able to survey the area you have
entered.

Turn to 38.

109

You prop the ladder against the wall below the black
panel and mount until your head is just below it. The
panel is cool and smooth to the touch, and as you peer
closely at it you feel there is a dark space beyond.

There are no apparent fastenings you can release to
remove the panel, so if you are to discover what lies
beyond you will have to smash it. If you wish to do
this, you should turn to 45.

Should you decide this may not be a good idea, turn
back to 217 and choose again.

110

You stand by a gigantic pair of one-foot-thick metal
doors, which are obviously designed to close a
twenty-five-foot-wide, thirty-foot-high opening. At

111-112

some time in the past, the mechanism that operates
them seems to have failed, as one is stuck fully out,
while the other only protrudes a few inches from its
wall slot, leaving a gap of some twelve feet.

On one side of this opening a twenty-five-foot-wide,
thirty-foot-high, well-lit passage extends some 100
feet to your right, but ends immediately to your left
at another, similar pair of doors which are also stuck
partly open.

If you wish to enter this passage, turn to 41.

On the other side is a truly enormous room, so
brightly lit that you think for a moment you have
emerged into the open air.

If you wish to look round this area, turn to 158.

Ill

Letting go, you drop into the room below. The large
feline (which turns out to be a Cheetah) springs to
the attack while you are in midair, causing you to
lose your balance and fall heavily.

You suffer 2 points of damage from the fall, and 3

more from the fangs and claws of your opponent.
Amend your Character Sheet and then turn to
183.

If the 5 points of damage are sufficient to kill you,
turn to 289.

112

If you have a rope readily available (i.e. on your
shoulder or belt - you cannot reach it if it is in your
backpack) you can try to tie it to the door handle
before your one-handed grip gives way.

113

Calculate E + 4H. You need a score of 15 to achieve
this. However, for every bag of gold or golden ornament
on your Character Sheet you must deduct 1 point trom
your score. You may use Fortune Points to bring your
score up to 15, if necessary though (amending your
Character Sheet appropriately).

If you manage to gain the necessary score, turn to
128.

Should you be unable to reach a score of 15, or not
have a rope you can use, you will lose your
handhold and should turn to 96.

113

You approach the apparent end of the passage, where
there is a blank wall. Unfortunately a trap has been set
for unauthorized intruders such as yourself. Part of the
floor moves beneath your feet, and the wall at the end
of the passage collapses on top of you.

Perhaps it is as well that the five-foot blocks have been
split into smaller bricks to facilitate their collapse; in
any event, you will suffer 4 points of damage.

If this is sufficient to kill you, turn to 289.

Otherwise you push the bricks away and struggle to
your feet. The collapse has not revealed any way
through, and you have no choice but to return to the
comer ten feet away. Coming to it fix)m this direction
the passage turns right here.

Please amend your Character Sheet with regard to
the damage sustained, or any Potion you may wish
to take, then turn to 379.

114-116

114

Although they close in when you start to retreat, you
manage to reach the rocky slopes ahead of the creeping,
crawling horde. A sound of hissing and cUcking seems
to indicate their annoyance, but for some reason none
of them leave the sand to follow.

Turn to 185.

115

You stand before a stout wooden door. On the left-hand
side is an 's'-shaped handle, carved to represent a
snake, and the door appears to be designed to open
towards you.

Behind you a passage leads straight for as far as you can see
in the light of your torch. If you face that way, you can see
a five-foot-wide opening in the right-hand wall fifteen feet
away, where another passage seems to lead off

If you open the door, turn to 399.

If you move along the passage as far as the side
turning, turn to 291.

116

You have entered a very large room. WhUe you can
only see a part of it, as your torchlight only reaches
about fifty feet, by walking around you are eventually
able to build up a complete picture in your mind.

The room is square, with each wall 100 feet long. You
can only just make out the ceiling, fifty feet above.
Two opposite walls are blank, apart fixDm empty
cressets spaced ten feet apart, fifteen feet above the
floor where you imagine torches may be installed as
required.

A statue stands on the dais.

117

A third wall has a massive pair of doors at either end.
Each pair is twenty feet high and the individual doors
are nearly eight feet wide.

If you wish to leave the room by the left-hand pair,
turn to for the right-hand doors, turn to 225.

The fourth wall features a series of wide steps
mounting to a dais on which stands a statue,
approximately twice life size. It appears to be a man in
robes, with the head of a long-beaked bird, and has
been carved from some reddish coloured stone.

On either side, carved in bas-rehef in the wall of the
familiar black blocks, are representations of robed
humans proffering empty bowls towards the statue.
The one on the right is male, while that on the left is
female.

If you wish to investigate the statue, turn to 56.

If you go to look at the carved bas-reliefs, turn to 280
for the male, or 104 for the female.

117

You have reached a corner in a five-foot-wide passage
with richly decorated walls. Looking in one direction
you can see the passage opens into a room twenty-five
feet away.

If you move on into the room, turn to 357.

If you have come from that direction, you will find
the passage turns left at this corner and, twenty-five
feet further on, turns right. Turn to 149 if you wish
to go to this second corner.

If you wish to examine the wall decorations, you
should first take a note of this paragraph number.

118-119

Then, if you wish to examine the walls between the
comer and the room, turn to 165. If you wish to try
the walls between the two comers, tum to 213.

118

You creep stealthily around the massive boulder and
are crushed to the ground as a tremendous weight

lands on your back.

You have suffered 4 points of damage (amend your
Character Sheet) and, staring wildly upward find you
have been ambushed by an Ogre, who had followed you
and climbed on top of the boulder when he saw you
retracing your steps.

There is no choice but to fight this fearsome
opponent, so tum to 374.

119

At this point there is a hole in the floor of the passage
with a shaft leading downwards. The hole is some five
feet long and three feet wide, leaving a foot of solid
floor on either side so that you can edge past.

If you wish to examine the shaft, tum to 67.

If you prefer to carry on along the passage, your
further progress naturally depends on the direction
you wish to take.

In one direction, you can see a similar hole in the
floor fifty feet away . If you go there, turn to 195.

In the other direction, the passage carries on as far
as you can see into the darkness. To go that way.
tum to 375.

120-122

120

You find the door opens into a large, dark room. So
large, in fact, that your torch only illuminates the wall
on either side of the door, one on your left, and a semi-
circle of floor. Looking up, you can just make out the
ceiling, fifty feet above. All is quiet.

Immediately to your right, beside the door which you
have opened, is a bas-relief of a man offering a bowl to a
large statue. On examining the door, you realize it is
designed to blend with the wall when closed, and
would be almost impossible to spot fom any distance.

If you go back into the passage, turn to 262. ( Close
the door behindyou. )

If you go out into the large room, the door will swing
shut of its own accord. Tofind out more, turn to 116.

121

Congratulations! Either you have worked out that the
code is based on the Atomic numbers of the Elements
represented by the letters of the clue, or you have made
a lucky guess.

When 121 is punched into the chest mechanism, the
lid will spring open, revealing the contents.

Unfortunately, the long-dead people who worked in this
station had worn special protective clothing whenever
they handled the highly radioactive fuel cells kept in
this lead chest. Without the protection, you and the
other occupants of the room die within seconds.

Please tum to 289.

122

A nimble adventurer such as yourself should be able to
negotiate this shaft. Calculate E + 4H-T as explained

123-125

in the Game System. You need a total of 13 to succeed,
but may use Fortune to modify your score if necessary.

If you succeed, turn to 154, bearing in mind that the
glass panel is broken.

Should you fail, you will fall to the floor below,
breaking the ladder irreparably as you do, and
suffering 3 points of damage. Amend your Character
Sheet, then turn to the second paragraph of 336.

123

You have reached a T-junction where three passages
meet at right-angles. Facing down the centre one you
see that it ends at a door ten feet away.

If you decide to approach the door, turn to 63.

Looking down the passage to your left, you see it ends
at a T-junction forty feet away.

If you move to that point you should turn to 391.

To your right, the third passage also ends in a
T-junction, only this one is only thirty feet off.

If you go that way, turn to 323.

UA

The Hound catches your offering in midair and

consumes it in one gulp. There is no discernible effect
It seems as fit and furious as ever and continues its
efforts to reach you.

Turn back to the paragraph number you just noted.
125

You have come into a rectangular room fifty feet long.

It appears to be a store room.

126

ten feet wide and ten feet high. A five-foot-wide
passage leads away from the right-hand half of one of
the shorter walls, and in the diagonally opposite corner
there is a five-foot-square opening in the floor, with a
ladder leading down.

This ladder is firmly fixed to the floor on the side of the
opening away from the ten-foot wall of the room. You
can see that five feet below is the corner of another
room, with the ladder attached to its tiled wall.

The room you are in at the moment appears to be used
as some sort of store. There are two twelve-foot
ladders, several fifty-foot lengths of rope, a six- foot
trident, a dozen ten-foot poles, three sacks of hard
biscuits, one of grain, a cask of salted meat and a row of
empty hutches which may have held small animals
recently, judging by the smell.

You may, if you wish, take one ladder, or any two of
the poles, rope or trident with you, adding them to
your Character Sheet.

If you descend the fixed ladder, turn to 317.

If you take a step or two into the passage, you can
just make out a side passage turning off it fifty feet
away. And if you move to that point, you should
turn to 221.

126

The circular metal plate is set flush with the wall, and
when you look at it closely you see that the surface is
completely covered with tiny raised bumps, almost as
though the metal had 'gooseflesh'.

You push and feel at the plate, but nothing happens

127-128

until you press the palm of your hand on it; then there

is a click and the surface seems to come alive, moving
against your palm with a not unpleasant sensation.

This suddenly comes to an end when you feel a violent
pain in your hand, and are thrown to the floor several
feet away. You have suffered 6 points of damage (if this
kills you, turn to 289) and such is the continuing pain
in your hand that your Expertise is reduced by 1 point
for the remainder of the adventure.

If you have the old man with you as a captive, and
are callous enough to make him press his palm to
the metal plate, turn to 302.

Otherwise, turn back to 62.

127

Drawing a weapon, you lunge upwards to strike the
panel in the centre. With a tinkling crash, shards of
glass fall around you to the floor, and you flnd yourself
peering up a gradually widening shaft which seems to
open out into a larger area some five feet above the
room where you are.

You decide it would not be too difi'icult to climb up
and, if you wish to try, should turn to 327.

If you prefer not to, you descend the ladder again
and must turn back to 355.

128

Having managed to secure a rope to the 'door' handle,
you descend slowly into the depths below. All is now
dark, as you naturally had to relinquish your hold on
your torch to use both hands. (No, you cannot hold the
torch in your mouth ! Torches are long and heavy.)

129

As you descend, you keep a count of the number of
times you change hands on the rope, until you realize
you are nearly at the end. There is still no sign of
ground level, your original torch went (Jut soon after
you released it, and you have no idea how much further
you may have to go.

You halt your descent about five feet from the end of
the rope and consider the possibilities. Any further
activities on the rope will bring varying chances of
losing your grip, and you may need to expend Fortune
Points you can ill afford in order to ensure success.

If you slide to the end of the rope and let go, turn to
144.

If you take a coin from your pouch and drop it, in an
attempt to gauge your height above floor level, turn
to 160.

If you have a second rope, and wish to try to attach
it to the bottom of this one, turn to 176.

If you try to extract flint, steel and tinderbox from
your pouch and create a light, turn to 192.

129

At this point, you can see the entrance hallway, which
is twenty feet wide, twenty-five feet high and leads
thirty feet to the outside world.

If you move to the hallway, turn to 23.

If you turn your back on the entrance, there are
fifteen-foot-wide passages leading off to each side. The
ceiling is still twenty-five feet above, and after going
several yards to either side, each passage turns back
towards the centre of the pyramid again. If you wish to

130

draw a map or diagram of the area, the walls to the
right and left of the entrance hall are each forty foot
long. The wall which faces the entrance, and extends
between the comers where the two passages turn
inwards, is seventy feet long.

This latter wall bears an interesting frieze of paintings,
obviously executed over a considerable period of years
as those at the right are nearly illegible while those
towards the left are quite fresh. The last fifteen feet of
the left-hand end is blank.

The paintings depict humans sailing ships, chasing and
fighting animals and monsters, bowing before an idol
and apparently attending meetings or lectures
although, you notice, there are no scenes depicting the
building of the pyramid, although it appears in its
present form in more than one of the pictures.

If you turn left and move to the corner, turn to 231.

If you go right, turn to 177.

130

You suffer several more attacks while getting clear of
the sands, and these will cause the loss of 3 more
damage points. (Turn to 289 if this brings about your
death.)

Once you gain the rocky slopes, you are left alone. For
some reason the creatures, now hissing and clicking in
apparent anger, will not leave the sand. You can only
wait for the morning, when the heat of the sun will
drive them back into their various lairs.

Now turn to 185.

131-133

131

You stand at a comer in the passage. Looking one way,
you can see that it ends at a door ten feet away. The
door appears to be made of stone, with no sign of a
handle.

If you move forward and seek a way to open it, turn
to 395.

Coming from that direction, the passage turns right at
the comer where you stand, and looking in the other
direction you can see that the passage opens into a
room only ten feet away. There will be at least one
dead Hound, of enormous size, in that room, but
whether the second is dead or not depends on your
previous decision.

If you enter the room, turn to 320 if one Hound is
alive, or 336 if both are dead ignoring the first
sentence.

132

Gingerly you taste the Potion. It is unfamiliar to you,
but does no harm. (In fact, it is a Nostrum of Venom
Dispersion, which will render harmless any poison
which may have been injected through the skin by fang
or sting. Of course, one has to survive the poison long
enough to drink the Nostrum, and some poisons take
effect instantly!)

Now turn back to the paragraph number you noted.

133

You have entered a large rectangular room. Pacing it
out, you find it to be thirty feet by forty-five feet. A
number of large candelabra stand around the walls but
are unlit. There are couches, a long table with a dozen

134

chairs around it, and tapestries have been hung on the
walls to cover the usual bleak, black stone blocks.

There is a five foot passage leading away from the
centre of one of the longer walls, and the walls of this
passage are richly decorated. You can see that it turns a
comer to the right after twenty-five feet.

If you wish to proceed to that corner, turn to 101.

In the left-hand end of the opposite wall is another
five-foot opening with a passage leading away. The
walls of this passage are painted a plain white, and the
passage runs for only fifteen feet to another room.

If you go to this next room, turn to 21.

There is a row of hooks along the shorter wall leading
towards this white-walled passage. From each hook
hangs a set of white robes, with designs embroidered in
purple. If you wish to take a set or robes with you,
enter them on your Character Sheet. If you decide to
wear the robes at any time, mark your Character Sheet
'Wearing white/purple robes'.

In the centre of the opposite wall is a large,
iron-bound, wooden chest, if you wish to open it,
turn to 145.

134

This wooden door has a metal handle shaped like a
bone. You turn it and pull the door open, revealing a
five foot passage on the other side, running away from
you to a crossroads fifteen feet away.

The action of pulling the door open causes something
else to happen... the door on the other side of the
room closes !

135-136

If you close this door again, the one across the room
will open once more, and you should turn to 102.

Should you step through this doorway into the
passage, the door will close behind you and you
should turn to 371. If you come this way again,
ignore mention of combat with the Hounds if you
have killed them.

135

You are at a point where four passages meet. Reading
clockwise, your choices are as follows:

In one direction the passage goes twenty feet before
a side passage turns off to the left. If you go that
way, turn to 199.

The next passage goes twenty feet to a point where
four passages meet. Turn to 3.

Another passage turns left after forty feet. If you
take this one, turn to 47.

The last one only goes ten feet before turning left. If
you head that way, turn to 83.

136

Lifting and uncorking your waterskin, you pour a fair
proportion of your liquid reserves into the bowl held by
the male figure. At first, nothing happens; then, when
the water is about three inches deep, there is a gurgle,
some bubbles break the surface, and the water starts to
drain away. (By this time, your waterskin is half
empty.)

137-138

A panel in the wall to the right of the figure now
swings open. You can see a passage beyond but,
being of a frugal nature, may pause to drink as much
as you can from the bowl before the water all drains
away, if you so wish.

In this case, you should turn to 350.

As the only illumination comes from your torch, the
passage beyond the opening will be dark until you
step into it. Just inside, you notice the handle which
operates the concealed door from within.

If you wish to enter the passage you step in,
closing the door behind you, and should turn to
161.

If you prefer to stay in this large room, and ignore
the liquid in the bowl, turn to 116.

137

The glass panel is slightly recessed in the wall. It

seems to be opaque, but when you press it there is a
click and a faint light comes on behind it.

Nothing else happens. You press the panel again and
the faint light disappears.

Turn back to 62.

138

As the pseudopod reaches further into the room
towards you, it rapidly expands. The creature can
obviously alter its form at will and there are now a
number of tentacles reaching out to pull you into the
growing maw at the end of the pseudopod. The torch
has no effect on them: indeed it seems to pass through
the vile mass without harming it in any way.

139-140

If you close your eyes and await the end, turn to 100.

If you try to plunge your weapon down the gaping
maw, as the tentacles seize you, turn to 42.

139

You have come to a comer in the passage.

If you look in one direction, you can see a point where
this passage is crossed by another only five feet away.

Turn to 255 if you move to this junction of the
passages.

Should you have just come from there, the passage
turns left at the comer where you are now, and after
only ten feet turns right again.

If you move to this latter corner, turn to 179.

140

You try to escape from the Hound by diving towards
the open door. The Hound attacks you again, causing
you 2 more points of damage, and if this kills you, turn
to 289.

Even if you survive, there is a chance that the Hound
will get a good grip on you with its jaws, thus
frastrating your attempt to escape.

Calculate E + 4H-T. If you score less than 15 the
Hound will prevent your escape, but you can use
Fortune Points to modify your score.

If you succeed turn to 252.

If you fail, you may either attempt to reach the door
again, by starting once more at the beginning of this
numbered paragraph, or turn to 172 to fight the
Hound.

The creature reaches into the room.

141-143

141

From this point in the five-foot-wide passage you can
see a comer, thirty-five feet away, where the passage
turns right.

In the other direction, also thirty-five feet away, you
can see a passage turns off to the left, while this one
continues on into the darkness.

If you move to the comer, turn to yil, while if you
proceed to the side passage you should turn to 321.

142

You have come to a large room, fifty feet square and
thirty feet high. There is a twenty-five foot wide
passage leading away from the right-hand half of one
wall. In the opposite wall at the right-hand end there is
a door, ten feet wide and fifteen feet high.

Ten feet out from the corner opposite the wide passage,
(on your right if you come in through the door) a
ten-foot-square shaft leads up through the ceiling.
Depending on your actions, there may be a rope
dangling from the centre of this shaft, with a circular
wooden platform on the floor beneath. (If you have not
lowered it, this will not be there!)

If the rope is there and you wish to climb it, turn to
57.

If you open the door, turn to 73.

If you move along the passage, turn to 62.

143

You stand before a heavy-looking wooden door, which

appears to open away from you, hinged on the right.
There is a handle on the left-hand side, formed by an

144-146

iron ring held in the jaws of a nicely carved jackal's
head.

Looking in the other direction, you can see" a short
passage leading away for fifteen feet to a point where
it ends at a T-junction. Halfway along, another
passage turns off to the left.

If you go as far as the first passage, turn to 219.

If you turn the handle and push the door open,
turn to 2A3.

144

You hit the ground after falling a little over fifteen
feet. Although not a particularly long distance, you
cannot land well when the ground is invisible, and
you have also landed partly on a pile of rusty old
metal.

The combined result is that you suffer a total of 4
damage points. If this is sufficient to kill you, turn
to 289.

If you survive, you groggily search for the
materials to make a light, and may turn to 240 to
survey your surroundings.

US

You find the chest has a large, ornate lock fastening
it shut. Surprisingly, there is a key already in the
lock.

If you turn the key to open the lock, turn to 293.
Otherwise, turn back to 133 and choose afresh.

146

You have arrived at one end of a thirty-five-foot-long.

147

five-foot-wide passage. At the far end you see the
passage ends at a T-junction, and if you wish to move
to that point, turn to 393.

There is an alcove in the left-hand wall at your end of
the passage, which is some five feet wide and three feet
deep. It extends up to the ceiling, but there is no floor
to it, only a shaft leading downwards, narrowing as it
goes, until it ends five feet below at a smooth shiny
surface. It looks Uke a glass panel, but you can see
nothing beyond it.

You see there is a black metal rod running down the
right-hand side of the shaft. It seems to be attached to
the shiny panel by a metal plate, and at the top end,
just below the level of the passage floor it ends in a
small metal box. The top few inches of the rod are
grooved and you feel it may be intended to open the
panel. Unfortunately, you cannot decide how it works.

The only way to investigate beyond the panel would
seem to be to break it somehow. If you wish to do
this, turn to 60.

147

You have come to a massive pair of doors across the
end of a flfteen-foot-wide passage. Each door is
seven-feet-wide and twenty-feet-high.

If you try to push one open, turn to 116.

In the other direction, the passage turns a comer to the
right twenty-four feet away. There is a small,
five-foot-wide door roughly halfway along in the
left-hand wall.

If you move that far, turn to 235.

148-149

148

You cast the homing torch down the shaft, and it lands
amongst the glass shards.

For several moments the torch continues to bum
fitfuUy. It seems to have landed on a partially liquid,
absorbent surface and there is much spitting and
bubbling around the flaming end. The area around the
torch seems to quiver and turns opaque, small
wavelets ripple the surface and then the flames gutter
and go out.

With your light from above you see the surface below
rapidly grow still again, while the cloudy area clears
more gradually. The glass shards seem to have sunk a
little lower.

What may be within the room below remains a
mystery. Whether you wish to abandon it, or seek a
way down, you will have to turn back to 378 and
decide.

149

You have come to a comer in a five-foot-wide passage.
Looking in one direction, you can see a passage leads to
a plain door twenty-five feet away.

If you proceed to the door, turn to 13.

If you have come from that direction, you will find the
passage turns left at this comer, then twenty-five feet
further on turns right again.

If you wish to carry on to the second corner, turn to
117.

The walls of the passage are ten feet high, and covered

150-151

in paintings and designs, some of which seem to be
centuries old.

If you wish to examine the walls between the two
corners, to see if you can find any messages, hidden
mechanisms or other clues, turn to 213.

150

After a few minutes you hear a cautious but heavy
tread close at hand, and a large bulk looms up against
the lightening sky. You realize you are being trailed by
an Ogre.

Though this is a formidable opponent, you will have
little choice but to attack. Ogres will not lightly
abandon a potential prey, and at least you have the
advantage of SURPRISE.

Leaping from cover, you strike the Ogre with your
weapon for the maximum damage as indicated in the
Game System. You should then continue the combat
as outlined there, but will still have an advantage from
your SURPRISE. So long as you can continue to hit the
Ogre in each round of Combat, you will keep
SURPRISE. As soon as you fail to score a hit, this
advantage will be lost.

Now turn to 37 4 for the Ogre's details, remembering
the effect o/ SURPRISE.

151

You have come to a corner in the passage. Looking one
way you can see your passage ends only ten feet away,
where passages lead off from both sides.

If you go to that point, turn to 291.

If you have just come from there, the passage turns

You are being trailed by an Ogre.

152-154

right at your corner and ends only five feet away at a
heavy, closed door. You can see a large bolt holding it
shut, and it appears that the door opens towards you.
All is quiet.

If you unbolt the door, turn to 277.

152

You carefully work your way around the room, but
are unable to find any concealed panels. It is
conceivable that some of the large stone blocks,
which all seem devoid of mortar, could be caused to
slide or pivot, but if so you cannot find a way to make
this happen.

If you leave the room, turn to 335. If you close the
door after you, the description given there will be
accurate: if you leave it open you should bear that
difference in mind.

If you stay in the room, but close the door from the
inside, turn to 216. There is another handle on the
inside, much like that on the outside.

153

Oh, bad luck! This is the poison used to dispatch
anyone too badly injured to be cured.

The merest taste is fatal: turn to 289.

154

You have come to a point where there is a shallow
alcove in the wall of the five-foot-wide passage. It is
three feet deep, five feet wide and goes all the way up to
the ceiling ten feet above. There is no floor to it,
however, merely a shaft leading downwards, narrowing
as it goes until it ends five feet below. The bottom of

155

the shaft is actually a glass panel two feet wide and
three feet long.

On the far side of the panel is a brightly lit area. You
cannot see much of it, but it seems to be either a room,
or a wider passage than the one you are in. Of greatest
interest, however is the enormous Hound you can see.
There is a length of chain attached to its collar and it
appears to be asleep.

If you wish to open the glass panel, either to enter the
area below, feed the Hound or whatever comes to
mind, there is a stout metal rod attached to one wall of
the shaft which looks as though it is intended for that
purpose. It is attached to the glass panel by a metal
plate, and at the top, just below the level of the passage
floor, it enters a small metal box. You cannot discover
how it works, however, so the only way to gain entry
seems to be to break the glass.

Should you wish to do this, turn to 364.

Otherwise you can either move to the corner five
feet away in one direction, where this passage turns
left 360 or go the other way. In that direction you
can see another passage turns off to the left, thirty
feet away. Turn to 393 if you go there.

155

As you walk along this fifteen-foot length of passage,
the floor suddenly opens beneath your feet and you feel

yourself falling.

Now is the time to show your agility: calculate E -i- 4H
and, if you achieve a score of 15 you will manage to
fling yourself forward far enough to catch the floor on
the far side. If you score 16 you twist backwards and

156-157

reach the floor behind you, whence you came. As
recognition that luck can play a part here, you may add
1 point to your score for every Fortune Point you cross
df your Character Sheet.

If you score 14 or less you are unable to save yourself
and should turn to 337.

Saving yourself by catching the edge of the floor will
necessitate dropping anything you were carrying in
your hands. Such item(s) are lost in the trap below, and
must be deleted from your Character Sheet.

The pit remains open for the moment: it is as wide as
the passage and fifteen feet long. It operated when you
reached the middle and you now see four sections of
floor hinged around the trap sides. There is a veritable
forest of spikes jutting up Irom the bottom some
twelve feet below.

If you score 15 or 16 turn to either 179 or 159
depending upon the direction from which you
approached and the side on which you escaped the
trap (159 takes you beside the door).

156

The Hound catches your offering in midair and
consumes it in one gulp.

There is no discernible effect. It seems as fit and
furious as ever and continues its efforts to reach you.

Turn back to the paragraph number you just noted.
157

You stand facing a passage which only leads five feet:
the one you are in extends to your left and right.

158

Looking to your left, you see this passage passes
another leading away to the right after thirty feet and
continues into the darkness.

To your right, this passage passes a small alcove in the
right-hand wall after five feet, then a side passage to
the right ten feet further on, before it too leads off into
the darkness.

If you have just emerged from the passage in front of
you, you will know what it contains.

Otherwise, if this is the first time you have come to
this point, you should turn to 8 if you wish to
investigate the passage before you.

If you wish to go right as far as the alcove, turn to
269.

If you wish to go left to the next side passage leading
to the right, turn to 321.

158

This colossal room, if you pace it out, proves to be 150
feet wide, 250 feet long and, you estimate, about 100
feet high.

On each side, ten feet from one end, are pairs of doors
twenty-five feet wide and thirty feet high, and between
them, five feet from the end wall is a vast screen, 100
feet wide and stretching from floor to ceiling. This
screen is like nothing you have ever seen before. When
you first enter the room it is covered by moving bands
of various shades of blue, but after a few minutes this
changes to red, then back to blue again with each
colour lasting about ten minutes.

The doors on the right, as you face the screen, are

159

closed, but slide open of their own accord if you
approach within five feet of them.

If you do this, turn to 78.

The doors opposite appear to have become stuck in a
partly open position.

If you go to look through the gap, turn to 110.

Just in front of the screen are five ten foot square
openings in the ceiling, leading up into the darkness.

At the far end of the room from the coloured screen are
a mighty pair of doors extending across the width of
the room and from floor to ceiling.

In the centre of the room is an extraordinary edifice of
metal. Parts seem to be rusty, and paint has peeled off
other sections.

If you wish to inspect more closely, turn to 249.

159

You stand before a closed, stout-looking wooden door
There is a square metal handle on the left-hand side,
and it looks as if the door opens away from you.

If you turn the handle and open the door, make a
note of this paragraph number, then turn to 387.

The door is in the right-hand end of one wall of a five
foot wide passage. To your immediate right is the
blank end wall of the passage.

To your left, the passage runs twenty feet from the
corner behind you, then turns left.

If you move to that point, instead of opening the
door, turn to 155.

Like nothing you have seen before.

160-162

160

You free one hand from the rope to extract a coin from
your pouch. Calculate E + 2H: you need a score of 12
to succeed, and may use Fortune to modify your score
if you wish.

If you fail you will lose your grip on the rope and
should turn to 144, adding 1 extra damage point for the
extra distance you fall as a result.

If you succeed, you hear the coin strike something
below quite quickly, and calculate you have around
fifteen to twenty feet to fall. The coin sounded as
though it hit some metallic objects.

Turn back to 128 to decide what to do now.
161

An experienced adventurer like you should be able to
negotiate a 'chimney' like this. Calculate E + 4H-T as
explained in the Game System. You will need a score
of 13 to succeed, but you may use Fortune to achieve
this if necessary.

If you succeed, turn to 16 if ascending, or 217 if
descending.

If you fail, you will fall to the floor below, breaking
the ladder irreparably as you do, and suffering 3
points of damage. You should amend your
Character Sheet appropriately, then turn to 217.

162

You turn the handle and push the door open. It is
hinged on the right, and beyond is a five-foot-wide
passage leading to another door twenty feet in front of
you.

163-164

If you pass through the doorway the door will swing
shut behind you. You note that the handle on this side
matches the one on the other.

Since the passage is quite dark, if you have no light
source you had better come out again and turn back
to 235.

If you have a light, turn to 295.

163

You stand at one end of a twenty-foot-long passage.

At the far end the passage ends at a wooden door,
and if you approach the door you should turn to 103.

If you prefer not to, you can examine the walls, floor
and ceiling to your heart's content, but will find no
openings, carvings, levers, buttons, sliding panels or,
indeed, anything of any note whatsoever.

You will eventually have to approach the door!

164

There is a handle on each side of the winch, which is
well greased, and you are able to spin the drum quite
quickly to send the bucket into the depths.

Keeping track of the amount of rope wound off the
drum is difficult, but you estimate well over one
hundred feet must be involved when there is a faint
splash, and the rope goes slack.

There is still some twenty feet of rope on the
winch-drum. If you wish to wind this off as well you
will see that the rope end is securely attached, being
actually threaded through a hole in the drum and
knotted around it.

165

If you fancy a hundred foot climb down the rope
into the darkness, turn to 228.

Should you prefer to wind the rope ( and bucket) up
again, turn to 356.

If you leave everything where it is and leave this
room, turn to 52.

165

You decide to examine the walls of this five-foot-wide
passage. They are ten feet high and completely covered
with a jumble of paintings and designs obviously
executed over many centuries. Some are so faded as to
be virtually indistinguishable, and in several places
newer works have partially covered older ones.

In the flickering light of your torch you peer closely at
the colourful display for a considerable time, but find
nothing to indicate a hidden opening or any form of
concealed message.

All this is quite a strain on your eyesight, and will have
the effect of reducing your Expertise by 1 point for the
remainder of the adventure. Amend your Character
Sheet accordingly.

The only way to avoid this is to drink a Healing Potion,
if you have one. This will not only restore your
normally excellent vision (and put your Expertise back
to normal) but will also have the usual effect on any
damage suffered.

If you do this, your Character Sheet will naturally need

amending again.

Then turn to either 357 if you enter the room at the
end of the passage, or 117 if you move to the corner.

166-168

166

You search the room and quickly come to the
conclusion that the only items of interest are those
already described: the doors, the panels in the ceiling,
and the two Hounds with their chains attached to rings
set in opposite corners of the room.

You can try turning these rings: for the one to which
the first, larger Hound was tethered turn to 294, and
for the other turn to 326.

If you wish to investigate the ceiling panel which
illuminates the room, and have a twelve-foot ladder
available, then turn to 70.

Even with a ladder you cannot reach the panel in
the centre of the ceiling.

If none of these alternatives appeal to you, turn back
to 102.

167

You have come to a corner in the passage.

Looking in one direction, you can see it leads into a
room twenty feet away.

If you enter the room, turn to 359.

If you have just come Irom the room, the passage turns
to the left where you are now, and continues into the

darkness for as far as you can see.

If you go in that direction, turn to 87.

168

You hastily close the door, without waiting to see what
manner of creature(s) may be in the heap of straw.

Looking in the other direction, you can see a door

169

twenty feet away, which may be closed, or open if you
visited that room first.

There is, however, no sign of the side passage which
used to turn off to the right five feet away. You begin to
realize what the grinding noise implied.

If you re-open the door and enter the room beyond,
turn to 88.

If you go to the other door and open it for the first
time, turn to 241.

If you have already been through the other door, but
wish to return, turn to 217.

Should you have reached a stage where you can find no
way out, you settle yourself in a comer to await
whatever may befall.

Turn to 300.

169

You have reached the first ten-foot-wide opening in the
well-lit twenty-five foot wide passage, which is on the
right if you are coming irom the doors at the end of the

passage.

This opening is ten feet wide, ten feet long and fifteen
feet high, and acts as a doorway with a long room
beyond. The door itself stands open.

The room is fifty feet square, with some rather
odd-looking furniture here and there. If you wish to
enter to look around, turn to 174.

You can now clearly hear voices coming from the
next opening in the side wall of the passage, sixty

170-172

feet away. If you wish to move closer to listen, turn

torn.

170

You elect to examine the dark panel set in the ceiling
above the centre-point of the left-hand wall, and prop
your ladder against the wall below it.

Climbing until your head is just below the panel, you
find you can make out nothing through it. Gingerly
you run one hand over the surface, which is cool and
smooth, rather like glass.

There is no way you can find to move the panel. If
you decide to break it, turn to 186.

Otherwise you can descend to the floor and, turn
back to the paragraph number you recently noted..

171

You have reached a solid-looking door which blocks
the passage. It appears to open towards you, hinged on
the left, and on the right-hand side is a handle in the
form of an iron ring held in the jaws of a jackal.

If you turn the handle and pull the door open, turn
to2A3.

Looking the other way, you can see the passage
extends twenty feet before turning a corner to the
right. If you move to this comer, turn to 211.

172

You decide to fight the giant Hound, which has
Expertise 13, Vitality 9 and does 2 points of damage.
Conduct the combat in the normal way and, if this
results in your death, turn to 289.

173-175

If you are victorious, turn to 38, and add 2 Fortune
Points to your Character Sheet. You may also take a
Potion if you wish, again amending your Character
Sheet appropriately.

173

Swimming quietly around the twenty foot square pool
in the darkness, you are relieved to find all is still and
quiet. The pool is surrounded by a flat surface on all
four sides, and you can climb out of the water wherever
you wish.

Assuming you have brought your tinderbox with you,
you will be able to make enough light to find a torch on

one of the walls and light it.

Even if you have no fire-making equipment, if you feel
your way around the room you will eventually find a
tinderbox thoughtfully placed on a table.

When you have some illumination, turn to 21.
174

Moving around this fifty-foot-square room, you find
two of nearly everything: beds, chairs, couches, tables,
cupboards, chests, etc. The odd thing is that one set is
human sized, while the other is half-again as large.
Looking into cupboards and chests you find the same
with clothing, footwear, cutlery and crockery.

It seems the quarters are shared by someone of your
own size and a giant!

When ready to leave, turn back to 169.

175

You lower yourself down the shaft and hang somewhat

176

awkwardly by your hands (as one of them holds a
lighted torch). You stamp hard on the window at the
bottom, which breaks. The glass falls free, but you do
not hear the expected tinkle of glass shards on the floor
below. Instead, you become aware of a low-pitched
humming noise from the room.

Peering down between your feet, you can see no change
in the room, and no sign of the glass either.

If you pull yourself back up, turn to 67, but
remember the window is now missing.

If you go ahead and drop into the room below as
planned, turn to 259.

176

Attaching a second rope to the one you are already
using is no mean feat, but at least you will be able to
change hands on the rope to remove your backpack, if
you need to reach into it.

In order to avoid losing your grip on the rope while
engaging in all this activity, you will need to achieve a
score of 16. Calculate E -i- 4H: again you may use
Fortune to increase your score, but this time the
supporting grip of your legs on the rope will nullify the
effect of any extra weight you may be carrying.

If you fail to reach the necessary score, you will fall.
You should turn to 144 to learn the effect, but will
need to add I extra damage point as you are falling
rather further than indicated there.

If you succeed in attaching a second rope, turn to
208.

The right-hand wall bears a painted Meze

177-179

177

You have come to a comer in the fifteen-foot-wide
passage. Looking in one direction, there is enough
daylight for you to be able to see the passage stretches
seventy feet before turning right. The right-hand wall
bears a frieze of paintings: those nearest you are badly
faded, but in the light of your torch you can make out
pictures of men, women and sailing ships. Halfway
along on the left-hand side a twenty-foot-wide hall
opens oft and some daylight comes in from that
direction.

If you go as far as that, turn to 129.

Around the comer, the passage ends some twenty-four
feet away at a pair of massive wooden doors, each
seven feet wide and twenty feet high. Halfway along
the right-hand wall is a smaller door, five feet wide and
twelve feet high.

If you go as far as this smaller door, turn to 235.

178

After this initial success, the horde of biting, stinging
creatures are not going to quit now.

Long before you reach the dune you will run out of
Vitality or Fortune Points, and should turn to 289.

179

You come to a comer in the passage.

In one direction you can see a second corner, ten feet
away, where the passage turns right. If you move
there, turn to 139.

Looking the other way, you see a third comer, where

The wind is carrying your scent.

180-182

the passage turns left after fifteen feet. If you go that
way, turn to 155.

180

When you come to retrieve the ladder, you find it has
become stuck in the surface of whatever lies in the
room below.

Pulling it free will take quite an effort. Calculate E +
4H: you will need a score of 15 to succeed. Fortune
may not be used to modify the score this time.

If you manage to pull the ladder free, turn to 212.

Otherwise you will have to leave it here, and turn to
269.

181

You manage to turn the handle and, throwing your
weight forward, force the door open.

As it opens, the floor silently moves back up into place
beneath your feet. Cautiously you try your weight on
it, but it is as sound as before.

Turn to 107, ignoring the first paragraph.

182

The day passes without incident, and the cooling air
finally wakens you at dusk. You have a meal and
re-settle your equipment about your person before
setting off once again, trying to keep the constellation
of the Wolf directly behind you, as before.

For a while you can hear the occasional roar or howl
from some wild creature in the direction from which
you came, and wonder if the desert scavengers are
disputing the Ogre's body.

183

Again you make quite good progress through the night,
but become a little disturbed as you realize that the
roaring at least is keeping pace with you.

In the early hours of the morning you cross a long, bare
expanse of loose pebbles and, looking back from the far
side, see a Mountain Lion purposefully trotting after
you.

There is no chance of concealment, as the wind is
carrying your scent straight to the predator. You will
have to fight, and this time there is no way you can
obtain the benefit of surprise.

Turn to 310.

183

You join in battle with the Cheetah, which has
Expertise 12, Vitality 9 and can do 3 points of damage
with its claws and fangs. The fight will continue until
one of you is dead, unless you wish to try to break off
the combat and leave the room.

If you do this, the Cheetah will be able to attack your
defenceless back, and will automatically cause 3 points
of damage. Then you will have to sacrifice 2 Fortune
Points to successfully open the door and escape,
otherwise the Cheetah will be able to drag you back,
and you must continue the fight to its conclusion.

If you manage to kill the Cheetah, turn to 355.

If the Cheetah kills you, turn to 289.

If you escape from the room, slamming the door
after you, turn to 97, and do not forget to delete the
Fortune Points and record the damage on your
Character Sheet.

184-185

184

You stand by a corner in a five-foot-wide passage, the
walls of which have been covered with a multitude of
pictures and decorative designs over a very long period.

Looking in one direction you can see a plain door at
the end of the passage twenty -five feet away. If you
move to that door, turn to 120.

If you make a careful examination of the wall
decorations between the comer and the door, take a
careful note of this paragraph number, then turn to
296.

If you have come from that direction, you will find
the passage turns right here, then turns left
twenty-five feet further on. If you carry on to the
second comer, tum to 101.

Should you decide to make a close examination of
the paintings on the walls between the two comers,
you should again take note of this paragraph
number, but turn to 229.

185

Shuddering, you make your way back up the slope to
the cover of the rocks and are soon sleeping by a small
fire.

In this way you pass the rest of the night comfortably
and, by dawn, having drunk sparingly of your water
(and taken any Potions if required) are back looking
across the sandy depression. You can now see that,
although the impossibly regular dune is the same
colour as the sand, the pyramid perched on top is a dull
black.

From here you can see no openings in the pyramid, no

186-187

steps as the burned man described, and certainly
nothing on the surface of the sand.

You realize that you arrived at the edge of the circular
vaUey just about due North of the centre, and the wind
is now blowing from ahead and to your right. It,
therefore, seems sensible to circle the valley in an
anti-clockwise direction so that the wind will soon be
at your back.

Shmgging your equipment into a more comfortable
position, you set off.

Turn to 98.

186

Using a weapon, you strike forcefully upwards at the
centre of the dark panel. This does indeed prove to be
made of glass, which shatters and falls around you to
the floor below.

In the space revealed, you find a shaft leading upwards,
widening slightly as it goes. There seems to be a larger
space opening df it, five feet above, on the side away
from the room.

You feel you can probably work your way up to that
point, with a bit of luck, and if you wish to try
should turn to 122.

Otherwise, you come back down the ladder and
turn back to the paragraph number you noted
recently.

187

As you turn the handle and pull the door open, there is
a grinding noise behind you, which almost drowns the
rustle of straw from one comer of the room beyond the

188-189

door. The room is dark, but in the light of your torch
you can see it is some fifteen feet square and the
same in height. The door is in the centre of one wall
and there is a heap of straw in the opposite left-hand
comer. You can see two pairs of eyes gleaming at
you, and there is a low snarl.

If you enter the room turn to 88.

If you close the door without entering, turn to 168.

188

You recall hearing tales of these rare creatures,
known as Entanglers. Normally they are much
smaller and live in hollow trees or rock crevices
where they are able to kill small animals with their
stinging tendrils and drag the bodies into their lair
for digestion. This one has grown to be a monster!

As you reach the door, two tendrils bmsh against
you, stinging severely and causing you 2 points of
damage.

Amend your Character Sheet and if this is
sufficient to kill you turn to 289.

If you survive you are able to wrench the door open
before more tendrils can reach you. Diving through,
you slam it shut behind you.

Turn to TAl.

189

This room is thirty feet square and fifteen feet high
and at first glance there are no exits.

The main feature is a ten foot square pool of water
against the centre of one wall. The pool is dark, as the

190

sides and bottom are formed by the normal
five-foot-square blocks of black stone which make up
the pyramid.

If you stand with your back against the wall facing
the pool, the wall on the right is lined with a row of
hooks holding quite fresh-looking towels. If you have
been in the pool, you can use these to dry yourself.

The wall on the left holds several torches, only
partly used, set in holders jutting out from the wall.
There is a small table by the centre of the wall, and
this holds flint, steel and tinderbox. You decide that
the extra illumination may be a good idea, and light
several of the torches. Although the ceiling and floor
are made of the normal black stone blocks, the walls
have been Uned with white tiles.

Immediately to your left, in the comer of the room, a
ladder is attached to the wall and leads up through a
five-foot-square opening in the ceiUng.

If you wish to climb the ladder, turn to 317.

If you wish to enter the pool, turn to 93. The
water is extremely cold, but there is no sign of
living creatures in its depths.

190

Cautiously you approach the second opening and
stop short of the comer to listen. There are two
voices speaking: one sounds old and quavery and
does most of the talking, while the other is very deep
and gniff and speaks only in monosyllables. They are
not speaking very loudly, but straining your ears you
hear, 'Hold it steady' at one stage in the
higher-pitched tones.

191-192

If you try to sneak past the opening to investigate
the one jurther down the passage, turn to 201.

If you go into the opening, turn to 226.

Should you prefer to creep away without alerting the
speakers to your presence, turn to 206.

191

The door opens away from you to reveal a
fifteen-foot-square room; the door is in the centre of
one wall. There are no signs of other doors and the
room seems quite featureless apart fram two panels in
the ceiling.

One of these is two feet square, in the centre ol the

ceiling, and glows dull red. You can feel heat radiating
fiDm this panel, and the room itself is unpleasantly
warm.

The other panel is some three feet long and about two
feet wide and is set in the ceiling above the
centre-point of the right-hand wall. It is quite dark and
smooth.

Unless you have a ladder with you, there is no way for
you to reach the ceiling panels, and even if you have
one you will not be able to support it in order to get to
the centre panel.

Nonetheless, if you wish to search the room, turn to
218.

Otherwise you shut the door again and should turn
backtoTAl.

192

This time you have set yourself a task which would
confound a contortionist. To make a light, you have to

193

strike flint on steel, catch the spark in a box holding
the tinder, then blow on it to coax forth a flame. Even
then the flame is small, and is usually only employed
to light a torch or candle.

Doing all this while dangling on a rope will call for a
score of 20! Calculate E + 4H in the usual way, and
again you may increase your score by sacrificing
Fortune Points if you wish. This time we will allow
that the grip of your legs on the rope will negate the
effect of any extra weight you may be carrying.

If you fail to achieve the necessary score you will
lose your grip and fall. Turn to 144, but add 2 extra
points to the damage you will suffer, because of the
extra distance you fall and the awkwardness of the
attitude you are in from your exertions.

ffyou do succeed in making a light, turn to 224.

193

On leaving the room, you may close the door behind
you or leave it open, as you wish.

Twenty feet away you can see another door opposite.
This in turn may be open or shut, depending on your
previous actions.

If you have been through that door already, but
wish to do so again, turn to 217.

If you have not previously opened that other door,
but wish to do so now, you move to it and should
turn to 241.

In any case you will notice that the side passage, which
once turned oif to the right five feet from the door to
the Hyenas' room, has disappeared. There is only a

194

blank wall there now and, try as you may, you are
unable to find a way to move it.

If you return to the Hyenas' room, turn to 344.

Should you have reached a stage where you abandon
hope of escape, you settle yourself as comfortably as
possible and await what time may bring.

In this case, turn to 300.

194

It takes the file of white-clad beings half-an-hour to
cross the sands, and they appear to have no difficulties
on the way. You count fifteen of them, one of whom is
being carried on a litter by four others, while another
leads three animals by a rope. At this distance you
cannot identify them for certain but decide they are
probably sheep or goats.

Once at the dune, they appear to climb a flight of steps.
You cannot see them, but the motions indicate they
must be regularly spaced and fairly wide, as the litter is
carried up sideways. At the top they all disappear from
view, and you assume there must be an entrance.

Watchfully, you settle down to wait and eventually,
around noon, the party emerges again. They have been
inside for some four hours. You again count fifteen
figures, but this time all are walking quite normally
and there is no sign of the animals.

The file again crosses the sand, all mount camels and,
with a small cloud of dust, they disappear into the
defile.

The long wait in the heat has cost you 1 Vitality Point
and caused you to drink more of your precious water.

They appear to climb a flight of steps.

195-196

You realize that you are now down to one full
waterskin and, unless you can find water here, will not
have enough for the return journey.

You decide to cross the sand now, rather than waiting
for nightfall when the creatures you saw come out of
their day-time lairs.

Turn to 210.

195

You stand by a rectangular hole, some three feet wide
and five feet long, and there is just room to pass by on
either side.

If you prefer to move on along the passage, you have a
choice of directions.

Looking one way you can see this passage ends at a
T-junction twenty-five feet from the hole, where
other passages lead off to left and right. Turn to 372
if you go that way.

In the other direction, you can see another similar
hole in the floor fifty feet away. If you move towards
it, turn to 119.

If you wish to examine the shaft, we shall assume you
are standing on the foot-wide ledge to one side, with
the similar hole fifty feet away to your left, and the
passage leading to the T-junction on your right.

With that in mind, turn to 211.

196

By the fight of your torch you can see that you are in
the bottom of a well shaft. The shaft is only five feet
wide, the bottom is quite level and the water comes up

197

to your waist. The rope dangles down from the
darkness above, attached to a large bucket which is
submerged beside you.

AU is as you might expect, except that there is a
square opening in the wall behind you, about six feet
above the surface of the water. It looks to be a bit
over two feet across and you feel you could squeeze
through if you could reach it.

You can either clamber on to the submerged bucket
or cUmb a little way up the rope and swing yourself
over.

The opening is, you calculate, in the wall which
faced away from the doorway into the room
above. If you wish to scramble through it, turn to
2.

If you prefer to climb the rope all the way to the
top of the shaft, turn to 28.

197

If you have the metal rod with the grooved end
which was in a chest with the gold pieces and the
Potion, you will be able to screw it into this hole.

Nothing else will fit, so if you do not have the
metal rod, turn to 184.

After several turns, you find increasing resistance,
but with a hefty twist of your wrist you screw the
rod further home. There is a grinding noise and a five
foot block of stone swings back, pivoting somehow
on its left-hand comer to reveal a five foot square
recess. Beyond that is a dark space and this seems to
be the entrance to a secret room.

If you wish to enter, turn to 365.

198-200

Otherwise, the space will remain open until you
start to unscrew the rod, when the block will swing
back into place. Turn to 184 if you do this.

198

The Hound eagerly catches the food in its jaws and
gulps it down without pausing for breath. The effect is
striking. . . within seconds its legs collapse, it rolls
over on its back and, with only a last twitch from its
Umbs it is dead. The green Uquid is obviously a most
potent poison.

You may add 2 Fortune Points to your Character
Sheet for disposing of this opponent, then turn to
102.

199

You have reached a point where three passages meet.

If you turn to 19 you can move thirty five feet to a
point where four passages meet.

Moving clockwise, at right-angles to this passage, is
another which runs for fifteen feet to a turning off on
the right. If you move to there, turn to 391.

In the opposite direction the passage goes twenty
feet to a point where four passages meet. If you go
that way, turn to 135.

200

Whichever of the two ankhs you try to remove, you
will find is actually a fixture. It appears to be hinged in
some way, and you can pull the top towards you.

When you do this, there is a grating noise followed by a
rumbUng within the wall, which causes some

201

vibration in the passage. A section of the wall close by
seems to move a fraction of an inch, then the noise
ends and the ankh/lever returns to its upright position.

Turn back to 17.

201

You decide to try to sneak past the second ten foot
opening in the twenty-five foot wide passage, without
alerting those talking within.

This is mainly a test of skill. Calculate E+4H-T and
you will need a score of 15 to succeed. You may sacrifice
Fortune Points to modify your score if you wish, and
should amend your Character Sheet if you do.

If successful, you are able to tiptoe past this opening
and continue to the next, which is either the furthest
fom the large doors on the right-hand side, or the
closest on the left-hand side, depending on which way
you are going.

If heading towards the partly closed doors, turn to
169, while if heading the other way you should turn
to 238.

As you pass the opening you will be able to look into a
fifty foot square, well-lit room beyond an open door.
There are a number of work benches in the room,
various heaps of unidentifiable objects, mainly made of
metal, and at one bench a white-haired man and a nine
foot, hideously ugly figure are working.

The figure looks like a Troll, and if you failed to sneak
past it was probably because your surprise caused you
to utter some sound. In any event, if you failed to
achieve a score of 15, they see you.

If you smile and walk in, turn to 226.

An incongruous pair.

202-203

If you make a run for it, back towards the doors
partly closing the passage, turn to 274.

202

As the ceiling is fifteen feet above the floor, you will
only be able to examine the panels if you have
brought a ladder from the storeroom.

If you have no ladder turn back to 320 if one
Hound is still alive, or 336 if both are dead.

Even if you have a ladder, you will be unable to
reach the red-glowing panel in the centre of the
room. If you wish to examine one of the others,
first make a note of this paragraph number, then
turn to 257 if you wish to examine the brightly
shining yellow panel.

The dark panel can only be examined if the
second Hound has been overcome. If it has, and
that is the one you prefer to try, turn to 170.

203

You are at a comer in the passage.

Twenty feet away in one direction is a point
where four passages meet. If you move there, turn
to 3.

In the other direction you can travel thirty-five feet
then the passage ends at a closed wooden door.

Turn to 335 if you go to the door.

204-205

204

When you try twisting the ring, which is set into the
wall in one corner, it turns easily and with scarcely a
sound a door opens in the centre of the wall beneath
the ceiling panel through which you entered.

If you leave through this door, turn to 239 but
remember that the other Hound is still alive.

Should you prefer to stay in this room for the
moment, turn back to 38.

205

You recover consciousness after a few moments, to
find yourself lying on the fioor of the room at the foot
of the ladder. Delete 3 Vitality Points from your
Character Sheet and if this kills you, turn to 289.

Your weapon is ruined, as the point has partially
melted.

The panel above you is broken and there is no longer
any light coming from it. Any other shining panels in
the ceiling are unaffected, and you decide to leave
them strictly alone.

You can, however, see that the broken panel concealed
a space of about two cubic feet volume. There is an odd
construction of metal in the top of this small space,
which has obviously been damaged by the force of your
blow. You can only suppose it was a magical device
with some permanent form of 'light' spell cast upon it,
with another protective spell cast upon the glass cover
which nearly ended your life.

Turn back to the paragraph number you were asked
to note when you climbed the ladder.

206-208

206

If you are in luck, you will be able to creep away from
the opening without alerting those talking within.
This only calls for the sacrifice of 1 Fortune Point: if
you delete this from your Character Sheet you will be
able to get back to the opening nearest the partly closed
doors without the speakers hearing you, and should
turn to 169.

Should you be unable (or unwilling) to sacrifice a
Fortune Point, you will accidentally clatter your
scabbard against the wall. The conversation ceases
with a cry of alarm and the sound of hurried footsteps.

If you run, turn to 242, while if you hope to brazen it
out, turn to 226.

207

You stand before a stout-looking, closed wooden door.
From the position of the hinges, you deduce that it
opens towards you. There is a square metal handle on
the right-hand side. If you listen carefully you will not
hear anything.

If you turn the handle and pull the door open, make
a note of this paragraph number, then turn to 387.

Looking away from the door, a passage extends
twenty-five feet to a corner, where it turns left. If
you move to the comer, turn to 227.

208

Well before reaching the middle of the second rope,
your feet touch something below. Feeling cautiously
around, you find you are standing on a heap of metal.
Keeping your weight on the rope, you edge your way

209-210

down to firm ground, then release the rope and search
out your materials to make a Ught.

When you are able to survey your surroundings, turn
to2M.

209

The winch and the platform suspended below it look
capable of raising and lowering quite heavy loads, but
naturally there is no way that you can descend on the
platform without having one or probably two others to
work the winch.

The only way you can descend, therefore, is to lower
the platform and then climb down the rope. You
cannot climb down while carrying a torch, but could
lower a burning torch on the platform.

If you wish to do this, turn to 46.

Otherwise, there is nothing else of interest in the
room, so you leave by the passage and should turn
to 167.

210

Quickly you descend the rock slope and set out across
the sand. In half-an-hour you reach the dune, without
incident, then move round to the South side where you
do indeed find a wide flight of steps leading upwards.
The curve of the dune obscures your view of the
pjramid from here, and you start to climb.

The composition of the dune is most odd. It appears to

be made of sand, yet when you prod it with your sword
it is as hard as rock. And the steps seem to have been
carved out of it, perfectly cleanly and regularly with no
signs of wear or erosion.

An imposing entrance

211

You reach the top and there is an imposing entrance
before you, twenty feet wide and some twenty-five feet
high. The walls are made of five-foot cubes of some
dull black rock, so cleanly cut that only a thin crack
marks the spaces between them, which appear to be
un-mortared.

Before you enter you survey the sands below, but can
see nothing marring the smface. If the dead Magician
were there, it seems likely that nocturnal predators

have disposed of the remains.

Hoping that the white-clad ones may indeed not return
for a while, you decide to explore within, where all is
darkness.

Turn to 23.

211

What you see down the shaft depends entirely on your
previous actions.

It is possible that you have already clambered up the
shaft from the room below. If you did, you will be
able to make out the body of a dead, feline animal, a
heap of straw, some shards of broken glass and
(unless you have tied a rope to it and pulled it up
after you - be honest now) a ladder propped against
the wall.

Otherwise, you will be able to see that the shaft
narrows as it descends five feet to a transparent panel,
by which time it is three feet long and two feet wide.

Through the panel, you will be able to see a heap of
straw and a large, feline animal apparently fastened to
the wall on the left by a fairly long chain. The room is
fifteen feet square and the floor is fifteen feet below the

212-213

bottom of the shaft. You can see a door in the centre of
the wall on the right.

If you have already climbed up this shaft from the
room below, but wish to descend again, turn to "hTl.

If the panel is intact but you now wish to open or
break it, turn to 35.

If you decide to leave well alone, turn to 195.
212

You manoeuvre the ladder back up the shaft and into
the passage above, then notice with horror that the
bottom few inches have been eaten away, as if by a
very strong acid. With a shudder, you realize what the
effect might have been on your flesh had you dropped
into the room below.

Turn to 2^9 for further progress along the passage.
213

In the flickering light of your torch you peer closely at
the jumble of paintings and designs covering every
inch of the walls. Some faded older pictures have been
wholly or partly covered by newer ones, and the effect
becomes quite confusing in places.

However, near the end of one wall, facing the plain
door at the end of the passage, you iind a painting of the
pjramid and notice that the entrance is shghtly
recessed. When you press and twist this small section
there is a click, and a five-foot block slides to the right
revealing a recess with a larger opening beyond.

After a few seconds, the block starts to slide back
again to close the opening. If you wish to enter the
space beyond, turn to 381.

214-215

Otherwise, as you are by the comer of the passage,
you should turn to 149.

214

You wait in concealment for nearly an hour, and are
beginning to think you must have imagined
everything, when there is a rattle of loose rock on the
other side of the cave entrance, and the massive form
of an Ogre slides into view along the rockface.

Ogres are excellent trackers and will not normally
abandon a quarry once they have taken up the trail, so
you realize you have no choice but to fight. A moment
later your chance comes as it springs into the cave
mouth with a loud bellow, thinking to have cornered
you within.

Dashing from concealment you strike a mighty blow
from behind, for the maximum damage indicated in the
Game System. Your opponent turns and combat will
now proceed normally, except that you have the benefit
of SURPRISE for the next two rounds of combat.

Now turn to yiAfor the Ogre's details.

215

You open the door and see before you a large room ht,
in some fashion, with a glowing ruby light. A deep
humming noise fills the air.

Once your eyes have become accustomed to the
sfrange illumination, you see that the room is rather
more than fifty feet wide, and that there is another
door (closed) directly opposite.

The other walls are about twenty-five feet to your left,
and perhaps ten feet more than that to your right. Both
these walls also have closed doors in the centres.

216

There is a small, dark, shiny panel set in the ceiling
directly above the doorway opposite.

At the right-hand end, some objects lie against the
walls in the comers, but you cannot readily identify
them from here.

Halfway between you and the door opposite, some
sort of device stands on the floor. It is about two feet
high, three feet long and about the same in breadth.
Spinning lenses reflect little flashes of Ught at you,
and you can see a number of other moving parts. The
humming noise seems to come from this device.

If you wish to enter the zoom, turn to 55.

Should you prefer otherwise, close the door and
turn back to 343.

216

As the door clicks shut, the floor opens soundlessly
beneath your feet, spUtting across the centre of the
room. There is a similar space beneath this room,
fifteen feet across and fifteen feet deep. You will
plunge into this space unless you manage to retain
your grasp on the door handle.

This is mainly a matter of luck. If you are able
(and prepared) to cross 4 Fortune Points from your
Character Sheet you will be left dangling from the
door handle and should turn to 264.

Otherwise you will tumble into the space below, and
suffer 2 points of damage when you hit the floor. In this
case, amend your Vitality accordingly and turn to 376,
unless the fall kills you, in which case turn to 289.

217-218

(Whether or not you manage to hang on to the handle,
you will be able to keep hold of the torch in your other
hand, which illuminates the snake-pit below.)

217

The room is fifteen feet square and fifteen feet high.
Although walls and ceiling are constructed of the usual
black blocks of stone, the floor is covered by several
inches of sand. The ceiling has a number of panels set
in it, the like of which you have never seen before
today. There is a circular one in the centre, about three
feet across, which glows a dull red and gives off an
appreciable warmth.

Smaller rectangular panels, about two feet long and
one foot wide are set in the ceiling above the centre
point of each wall. Three of these give out a bright
yellow glare which you cannot look at directly for
more than a second or two as it is like gazing at the
midday sun. The fourth, over the wall to your left as
you stand in the doorway, is as black as night.

If you search the room you will find nothing of

interest.

If you wish to investigate the ceiling panels, you can
only do so if you have a ladder. If you have one, turn
to 349.

Otherwise, you leave the room and turn to 81.
218

You decide to search the room. If you have a ladder,
you can prop it against the centre of the right-hand
wall and climb to investigate the dark ceiling panel.

If you do this, turn to 26.

219-220

If you have no ladder, or prefer not to check the ceiling
panel, you can search the walls for secret doors.

In this case, turn to 234.

You can see if shutting the door through which you
entered will make any difference.

If you try this, turn to 266.

Should you decide, after all, to leave the room, turn
to 247 and close the door behind you.

219

You have reached a T-junction and are looking down
the centre one of the three passageways which meet
here.

This passage leads forty feet to a crossroads where
three other passages join it at right-angles.

If you proceed to that point, turn to 51.

The passage to your left only goes five feet then ends at
a closed wooden door.

If you move to the door, turn to 143.

The passage to your right only goes five feet then ends
as passages turn df to both sides.

If you move on to this second T-junction, turn to
319.

220

The Hound catches your offering in midair and
consumes it in one gulp. The effect is instantaneous.
As the Hound lands after leaping to catch the food, its
legs are already buckling, and it sinks to the floor,
Umbs twitching for a few seconds before it lies still.

221

AU is not quiet below, however. The continued noise
of barking, chain rattling and scrabbling claws
indicates there is at least one other similar beast
below. Since it has not so far appeared you can only
assume it too is chained up, but in a different part of
the area below.

You will not now need to turn back to the paragraph
number you recently noted. Instead, if you now
wish to descend, turn to 108 if you have a ladder.
Without a ladder, as previously explained, the only
way down is to drop and hope not to take too much
damage from the fall on to a stone floor. To try this,
turn to 76.

Otherwise, there is nothing you can do here. Turn to
the last paragraph of 154.

221

You have reached a T-junction where three dark
passages meet.

If you face down the 'upright' of the T, with the other

passages to left and right, you can see that it runs
straight ahead of you into the darkness.

Turn to 375 if you wish to proceed along this
passage.

The passage to your left seems to open into a wider
area fifty feet away.

You should turn to 125 if you go there.

To your right, there is a comer where the passage turns
left, forty-five feet away.

Turn to 377 if you go that way.

222-223

222

In order to make the return journey to Seven Wells

in safety, you will need the calm weather to
continue as no one can long survive the Groaning
Desert in a sandstorm. You will also need at least
two lull waterskins, or may end the journey much in
the state of the burned man.

If you have rescued prisoners to escort back, they
will be in rather poorer health than you, and you will
need an extra three fuU waterskins for each of them.

If you have an old male prisoner with you, turn to
311.

For the purpose of this adventure, sandstorms will
not appear if you continue to expend a Fortune
Point each night, so if you have 3 left you will be
able to complete the journey safely, and should
turn to 367.

If you do not have the necessary water and Fortune
requirements on your Character Sheet you had
better search for them inside, turning back to 23.

223

The door is hinged on the left and opens away from you
into a warm, brightly lit, fifteen-foot square room.

There is an immediate uproar of snarling and barking,
and you recoil into the passage as a huge Hound hurls
itself towards your throat. Fortunately it is jerked to a
halt just short of its goal, and you then notice there is a
stout chain attached to its collar.

CareftiUy staying clear of the doorway, you examine
what you can of the room from the outside. The
enfrance is in the centre of one wall, and there are two

The chain jerks it to a halt.

224-225

of these Hounds in the room, both on ten-foot-long
chains. You can see that one is attached to a ring set in
the wall in the far left-hand comer and assume that the
one which went for you has its own chain similarly
fastened in the near right-hand comer.

A quick mental calculation shows that this would
prevent the Hounds attacking each other in the centre
of the room, while one can obviously reach anyone
entering by the door.

If you wish to enter the room you can fight the Hounds
one at a time. They seem to be a cross between a
mastiff and a wolfhound, but are as big as small ponies.

Shouldyou decide to take this course, turn to 272.

Otherwise, turn back to 371, bearing in mind that
this door will now be open.

224

The light from your tinderbox is just sufficient to
reveal the ground, nearly twenty feet below. It also
reveals a heap of rusty old metal immediately below,
but if you slide to the end of the rope and then swing
slightly to one side you should be able to land safely.

If you try this, turn to 256.

Should you decide against it, turn to 128 to
reconsider your options, but make a note of this
paragraph number to save having to go through the
light-producing acrobatics again.

225

You stand before a massive pair of doors, each twenty
feet high. A fifteen-foot-wide passage ends at the doors
and if you look along it, you see it turns a comer to the

226-227

left twenty-four feet from the doors. Roughly halfway
there is a smaller, five-foot-wide door in the right-hand
wall.

If you go as far as the smaller door, turn to 347.

Otherwise, if you push open the massive doors
before you, turn to 116.

226

You find yourself facing a most odd couple. One is an
elderly man, with white hair and keen eyes who stands
a little behind his more menacing companion, a
nine-foot-tall Troll, incongruously clad in human
clothes including rough-looking trousers, leather
jerkin and boots. The Troll holds a fearsome-looking
weapon which is like a metal club, some three feet
long, with a square opening in one fiared end.

Oddly enough, their attitude depends considerably on
the way you are dressed.

If you are wearing the standard adventuring clothes
you set out in, turn to 258.

You may have discovered some clothing on your
travels within the pyramid. If you have donned
white robes with purple embroidery, turn to 265,
while if you are wearing white embroidered in green
you should turn to 270.

227

You have come to a comer in the passage. Looking in
one direction you can see a closed door across the
passage twenty feet away.

If you move to the door, turn to 111.

228-229

If you have just come from that direction, the passage
turns to your right at the comer where you stand.

In the other direction, you can see the passage ends at a
second closed door, twenty-five feet away.

Should you decide to go to that door, turn to 207.
228

You will need both hands to climb down a hundred feet
of rope, which precludes carrying a light.

If you extinguish your torch, secure your equipment
and swing down into the shaft, turn to 32A.

If you decide against it after all, turn back to 164.

You can, if you wish, prop your torch in an empty
bucket, so that this room at least is illuminated. If so,
delete the torch from your Character Sheet.

229

You carefully examine the designs on the walls
between the two corners in the passage. The only item
of note is a small hole at chest height near the left-hand
end of one wall, facing the plain door at the end of the
other section of passage.

There are grooves in the hole, which is only an inch or
so deep, and it looks as though something can be
screwed into it. If you have already found a metal rod
with an appropriately grooved end, you may wish to try
screwing it into the hole now.

If so, turn to 197.

You find nothing else. As you are effectively by the
corner, turn to 184.

230-231

230

If you have broken the glass panel you will now find
that there is insufficient light from the red panel to let
you see your surroundings properly, and you will need
to light a torch before proceeding.

When you have done so, and amended your
Character Sheet, turn to 166, remembering that the

yellow panel is now broken.

If you do not have a torch, this unfortunately signals
the end of the adventure for you, as without
illumination you cannot see where you are going.

231

You stand by a corner in the fifteen-foot-wide,
twenty-five-foot-high passage. Looking one way, you
can see the passage turns a comer to the left seventy
feet away. In that direction the left-hand wall bears a
frieze of paintings, except for the fifteen feet nearest
you, where the wall is blank.

There is a twenty-foot-wide passage leading from the
centre of the wall opposite, and you can see daylight
from somewhere not too far along it.

If you have just come from that direction, the passage
turns right here, and leads twenty-four-feet to a large
pair of doors some twenty feet high. There are no
handles visible. In the left-hand wall, roughly halfway
to the large doors, is another smaller one, five feet wide
and twelve feet high. This one has an 'S' shaped handle.

If you go to the large doors, turn to 225.

If you go to the smaller door, turn to 347.

If you go to the point where the wide passage

232-233

showing daylight joins the one you are in, turn to
129.

232

You start pouring water into the bowl fom your
waterskin. At first, nothing happens. Then, when the
water in the bowl is about three inches deep, several
bubbles come to the surface, and the water starts to
drain away. By now, you have half-emptied your
waterskin.

At the same time, a panel in the wall immediately to
the left of the female figure swings silently open, and
you can see a passage beyond leading away from the
large room you are in.

If you hurry to enter the passage, turn to 253.

Should you decide not to waste the water in the
bowl, but take a quick drink before it all runs away,
turn to 333.

If you prefer to stay in the large room, and refrain
from drinking from the bowl, turn to 116.

233

The metal stairway creaks a little under your weight,
but you can climb up or down safely.

The interior of the metal object is quite small, as the
walls, floor and ceiling appear to be almost ten feet
thick. There are several unusual seats, spaced around
the walls and in front of the windows, which are
mounted on curved supports so that the occupants
could either sit upright or tilt backwards until they
were on their backs with their feet in the air.

Parts of the room aie wrecked.

234

Both walls and floor are covered with large and small
windows, some being blank but most, especially the
small ones, having little needles pointing at various
numbers, some of which are coloured. Below many of
these windows are small, coloured knobs or
indentations.

Someone seems to have been wrecking parts of this
room as small doors have been opened here and there
with enough force to buckle the edges, and strips of
coloured metal and thin metallic ropes dangle on the
floor.

It all seems highly magical to you, and you descend to
the floor outside again.

Turn to 158.

234

You start checking the walls for secret doors, but meet
with no success. As you finish working your way
around the room, you become aware of movement,
then something touches you on each shoulder with a
sharp stinging sensation, and you suffer 2 points of
damage.

Swinging round, you notice for the first time a dark
recess above the door. Several long, thick tendrils have
extended from this space, groping towards you, and the
first two have already given an indication of the
potential damage this monster can cause.

As the route to the door is blocked by the tendrils, you
have no choice but to fight.

Amend your Character Sheet for the damage
already suffered, then turn to 250.

235-236

If the 2 damage points were sufficient to kill you,
turn to 289.

235

There is a closed, wooden door in front of you, five feet
wide and twelve feet high. It seems to be hinged on the
right, and to open away from you. There is a black
metal handle shaped like a fish. If you turn the handle
and push the door open, turn to 162.

As you face the door, you are in a fifteen-foot-wide
passage running to left and right. Nine feet away to
your left is a pair of large wooden doors, to which the
passage leads.

If you move to those doors, turn to 147.

To your right, the passage turns a comer to the right
ten feet away.

If you go to the comer, turn to 177.

236

You determine to drop to the floor below: lowering
yourself as far as possible down the shaft, you let
yourself fall the last fifteen-feet or so.

As you land, the Hound is leaping for you and knocks
you oS balance. You land awkwardly, take 5 points of
damage from the fall and, before you can regain your
feet, the Hound's jaws have inflicted a further 2 points.
Please adjust your Character Sheet immediately by
deducting 7 Vitality Points and, if this kills you, turn
to 289. Even if you survive, you will find that the fall
has reduced your normal agility. Until you are able to
take a Healing Potion (which you cannot at present)
your Expertise is reduced by 1 point.

237-238

You do now get a quick chance to look around as you
prepare to meet the next attack. You are in a
fifteen-foot-square room with two Hounds. Each is
tethered by a ten-foot chain in opposite comers so that
they cannot quite reach each other.

Opposite the panel through which you entered is
another which throws a bright yeUow light over the
room, while a smaller one in the centre of the ceiling
glows a dull red, and emits a noticeable warmth.

There are two doors. One in the centre of the wall on
your right is closed, and you would come within range
of the second Hound if you tried to reach it. The other
is in the far end of the wall on your left. This one
stands open and neither of the Hounds can reach it.

If you try to reach it the Hound would get a 'free '
attack on you, but if this is what you wish, turn to
140.

If you fight the Hound, turn to 172.

237

The Giant Scorpion falls to the sandy floor of the room
with a final clatter of its chitinous hmbs. Add 4
Fortune Points to your Character Sheet, for this was
indeed a fearsome opponent. You may take any Potions
or eat today's meal if you wish.

Then turn to 217.

238

You come to the third opening in the long twenty-five-
foot-wide passage, which is the last one, before the
blank end wall. The opening is ten

239-240

feet wide and ten feet deep and at the other end is an
open door, ten feet wide and fifteen feet high.

Beyond the door is a well-lit square room fifty feet
across.

If you enter to have a look around, turn to 254.

Otherwise there is nothing else of interest in the
passage, and you should return to 190.

239

There is a comer in the five-foot-wide passage at this
point.

Looking in one direction you can see a fifteen-foot-
square room, five- feet away, with two huge Hounds
chained in it. One or both of them may be dead,
depending on your previous actions.

If you are coming kom the room, the passage turns
ri^t here, and twenty feet further on turns right again.

If you proceed to the second corner, turn to 99.

If you enter the room, turn to 336 but ignore the first
two paragraphs.

240

You have entered a fifly-foot-square room. Most of the

ceiling appears to be fifty feet high, but there is a
rectangular opening near the centre which leads
upwards into the darkness, appearing to taper slightly
as it goes.

Occupying the centre of the room is an enormous pile
of metal, some thirty feet across and over ten feet high
in the centre. It seems to consist of all sorts of

241

differently shaped pieces, some of them very rusty, and

none shaped for any purpose famiHar to you.

If you have just descended from above, there may well

be a rope dangling above one side of the heap of metal,
though too far up for you to be able to reach it.
A twenty-five-foot-wide passage leads away from
the right-hand side of one wall, sloping upwards as
it goes, and if you wish to move up the passage you
should turn to 89.

If you have just come down the rope, you can see that
this wide passage runs in the same direction as the
narrow one above, assuming that the door up there had
been on your right-hand side.

In the far comer, diagonally across the room from the
passage, there is a pool of liquid set in the floor, some
five feet across. It has rather an unpleasant smell, and
your eyes water when you go near. Thinking to test it,
you take a piece of metal and dip it into the pool.
Before your eyes bubbles appear on the metal and it
starts to dissolve: the liquid in this pool must be acid.

241

As you turn the handle and start to open the door, a
puff of warm air greets you and you are surprised to
find the area beyond is illuminated. There is a grinding
noise from nearby, but before you can find out more,
you are attacked.

A Giant Scorpion scuttles through the doorway, claws
clashing menacingly at you and sting raised
threateningly over its back. It has Expertise 13 and
Vitality 12 and gets two attacks to every one of yours.

A giant scorpion scuttles through the doorway.

242-243

Thus you must toss the coins twice for the Scorpion
and once for yourself, and if either of its scores are
greater than yours it will hit you. The giant claws do 2
points of damage.

If BOTH its scores are greater than yours, it will hold
you with its claws and sting you. This will cause you a
total of 6 points of damage (2 fom each claw and
another 2 from the sting) and you will also be
POISONED.

The poison will kill you before another day dawns,
unless you have a potion to cure it or can find one after
killing the Giant Scorpion. (The Scorpion only has
enough poison to inject once.)

If the Scorpion kills you, turn to 289.

If you kill the Scorpion, turn to 2yi.

242

You start running, there is a shout, and looking over
your shoulder you see an elderly, white-haired man
emerge from the opening accompanied by (and you
nearly trip over at the sight) a nine-foot-tall Troll
wearing clothes, or at least trousers, jerkin and boots.

The Troll starts after you, and you have no chance to
outrun those long legs, bearing in mind the distance
you have to go to find any means of leaving the area.
Soon it is right behind you, and you feel a smashing
blow on the head which knocks you to the floor.
Your senses leave you, and you should turn to 286.

243

The door is a little stiff to open, but as you increase

244

your efforts you hear a grating noise quite close by.
This ends in a heavy thud which vibrates the floor, and
the door starts to close again.

You can either step through the doorway or move
backwards. In either case you will see that on the
inward side of the door a passage leads twenty feet to a
comer where it turns right, while on the outward side
the passage passes a turning on the left after five feet to
end at a T-junction fifteen feet from the door.

If you wish to proceed to the turning on the left, turn
to 219.

Otherwise, if you are on the inward side of the door
you can move to the corner where the passage turns
right, and should turn to 227.

244

You have, in fact, landed on top of a Giant Amoeba.
These monsters are completely transparent and live
by ingesting flesh, bone, leather, wood and other
organic materials, but not metal, stone or glass.
Having no shape of their own, they will adapt
themselves to conform with their surroundings.
Although an Amoeba will avoid sunlight, which
causes a darkening of the surface area, the only
known way to kill them is to sprinkle acid upon
them. This apparently poisons the juices which they
use on their prey, and wine and vinegar can also cause
them some discomfort or harm.

These juices which have now stung your exposed flesh
cause no actual points of damage if wiped off
immediately, but act to anaesthetize the victim. You
must therefore, sacrifice 2 Fortune Points to avoid
losing consciousness.

245-247

If you do not have 2 Fortune Points, turn to 289, as
you will know no more.

If you have sufficient, amend your Character Sheet
appropriately. (Your hand must be so tough and
calloused that the astringent juices had no effect.)

Then turn to 276 if you lost your boot, or 358 if you
have come down a ladder to this point.

245

You plunge into the water, which is cold enough to
take your breath away. It seems quite deep and, not
surprisingly, there is no trace of any current or
movement in the water.

If you lit the torches around the walls of the room,
you will he able to make out your underwater
surroundings, and may turn to 261.

If you did not light the torches, you will be unable to
see anything below the surface and will eventually
climb back out, clean but chilled.

Turn toll.

246

The constellation has now disappeared from the sky,
and the sun is about to rise, so you seek a place of
shelter.

Turn to 86, and ignore any further mention of a
follower today.

2A7

You stand before a closed, heavy-looking wooden door
at the end of a passage.

248-249

Fifteen feet away the passage comes to a crossroads.
If you move to that point, turn to 19.

There is a handle on the door, shaped like a hooded
snake. If you turn it and push the door open, turn to
191.

248

Though not particularly tough opponents to an
adventurer such as yourself, these Hyenas were
infected with rabies, and a bite would have caused
problems.

You may add 2 Fortune Points to your Character
Sheet and, congratulating yourself on your skill,
turn to 344.

249

The metal construction seems to be quite ancient, in a
poor state of repair and its purpose is beyond you.

Overall it measures a little more than one hundred feet
in length, seventy feet in width and fifty feet in height,
but the lower twenty feet consists only of two mighty
supports, flat for most of their length but curved
upwards at the end away from the screen. They
somewhat resemble, though on a much greater scale,
the strips of wood which the Northern Barbarians use
to slide over the snows, and you wonder if these are
designed for movement over sand. If so, you cannot
imagine how many horses or oxen would be needed to
pull it.

The main body is thirty feet deep, has a number of
windows at the end away fi-om the screen and two large
cylinders protruding irom the other end.

250

Some sort of metal stairway extends from the
ground up to a door in the side. If you wish to climb
it and look inside, turn to 233.

Otherwise, turn back to 158.

250

You now recall hearing tales of these rare monsters,
known as Entanglers. Usually much smaller, they
occasionally inhabit small caves or hollow trees, and I
live olF small creatures like rabbits and squirrels. The
tendrils seldom exceed six feet in length, but this one
is over twice the usual size and obviously feels
competent to take on larger prey.

It has Expertise 1 1 and Vitality 10: for each tendril you
sever it will suffer 1 point of damage and as there are
ten tendrils it will die when all have been hit with an
edged weapon.

Combat resolution is therefore somewhat different
this time. Two tendrils have already reached you a
third does so now and one more will come into play in
every succeeding round of combat until all are in use
against you. You should therefore keep a careful record
throughout this combat.

hi each round, calculate E + 4H for yourself and each
tendril involved. You can only hit one tendril in each
round; any hit will sever a tendril and you will hit if
your score exceeds all or any of the scores for the
tendrils.

However, for every one which exceeds your score, you
will suffer 1 point of damage.

If you manage to sever all the tendrils, turn to 346.

251-253

If the cumulative damage kills you, turn to 289.
251

You have come to a comer where two dark passages
meet at right-angles.

ff you consider one as pointing towards twelve o'clock,
you will just be able to see that, fifty feet away in that
direction three other passages meet it to form a
crossroads.

Taking the other one as pointing towards three o'clock,
a side passage comes in fom the left after forty feet in
that direction.

If you proceed to the crossroads, turn to 3.

If you head for the side passage, turn to 323.

252

Beyond the door is a five-foot passage, which turns
right at a comer only five feet away.

Looking round the comer you see that the passage ends
at another door, again only five feet away. The door
appears to be made of stone, with an iron, ring-shaped
handle on the right-hand side.

If you wish to go to the door and try the handle, turn
to 58.

There is nothing else of interest in the passage, so
your only alternative is to return to the Hounds'
room, turning to 38.

253

You are in a five-foot-wide passage, ten feet high, with
walls covered fix)m floor to ceiling in paintings and

254

designs. At one end, the passage ends at a plain stone
door with a handle, while twenty-five feet away it
turns a corner to the left.

The paintings show human beings and monsters,
usually in desert settings with the pyramid in the
background, but in a few the pyramid is absent, and in
some there are seascapes and ancient sailing vessels
featured. Some seem quite fresh, while others must be
centuries old and are so faded as to be almost
indistinguishable. A few of the older ones are partially
obliterated by newer ones. Here and there are
geometrical or floral designs, usually as borders to the
paintings.

If you open the door, turn to 13.

If you move to the comer, turn to 149.

Should you study the paintings closely, in an
attempt to find concealed panels, messages or
cryptic clues, make a note of this paragraph number,
then turn to 296.

254

You have entered a fifty-foot-square room which is
illuminated by a number of brightly shining yellow
panels in the ceiling, thirty feet above. The door is ten
feet wide and fifteen feet high and stands open.

The contents of the room are in some disorder.
Cupboards and shelves stand all around the walls, with
some of the shelving reaching up to twenty feet from
the floor. Chests and cases are strewn around, most of
them standing open with their lids looking the worse
for wear. Some have writing upon them, but you can
only understand a few of the words such as 'Missile',

You can only understand a few of the words.

255-256

'Lighting', 'Danger', 'Detection', and 'Gravity'. Most
seem to have a connection with various powerful
spells, reinforcing your opinion that this must be the
territory of a truly mighty Magician.

You decide it is best to leave well alone, and retreat to
the doorway. As you do, you notice several metal
ladders stacked against one wall.

Closer inspection reveals that there are five ten-foot
sections, and they are ingeniously designed to fit
together to make one ladder up to fifty feet long. The
metal is quite untarnished, and amazingly light.

When ready to leave, turn back to 238.

255

There is a crossroads at this point; passages come in
Irom four different directions.

Going clockwise, one leads forty feet and ends
where passages come in from both sides. If you take
this passage, turn to 51.

The next one goes only five feet before turning a
corner to the left. If you move to that corner, turn to
139.

The third passage stretches forty feet to a point
where another passage comes in from the left. If you
go as far as that corner, turn to 291.

The last one only leads five feet and turns a comer
to the right. If you go there, turn to 15.

256

Calculate E + 4H-T: this time there are no Fortune
modifiers allowed. From the resulting score deduct 1

257

point for every bag of gold or golden ornament you
carry.

If the final score is 12 or more you land safely.
Otherwise you suffer 1 point of damage for every
point below 12.

Should this cause your death, turn to 289.

Otherwise, turn to 240 to survey your new
surroundings.

257

You prop the ladder against the wall just below a
brightly shining yellow panel. Gazing at it for even a
second causes you to look hastily away, half-blinded,
so you carefully avert your eyes as you climb.

With your head just below the panel, you feel
carefully around with your hands. The panel is
smooth and comfortably warm, like a window in the
full light of the sun. You cannot find any catches or
fastenings around the edge, so it seems there is no
way to find what is beyond the panel without
smashing it.

If you draw a weapon and smite the panel with it,
turn to 397.

If you decide to move the ladder to the side first,
in case whatever is above the panel falls on you
when you smash it, turn to 285.

Should you decide against further investigation of

the bright yellow panel, turn back to the
paragraph number you recently noted.

258-259

258

Your appearance is obviously unwelcome. The man
steps back, muttering something to the Troll, from
which you catch the words 'screen' and 'blue'. The
Troll starts towards you, hefting the metal club with
obviously hostile intent.

You really only have two alternatives: you can fight
the Troll here, or try to flee.

Neither is an attractive proposition. You are aware of
no way out of this area which does not involve a long
climb up a rope, and you will be doing well to keep
ahead of the longer legs of the Troll long enough to
reach it. The chances of climbing out of reach before it
can catch you seem non-existent.

The Troll has Expertise 15, Vitality 14 and does 3
points of damage with its weapon, but in every round
of combat it gets 1 Vitality Point back, due to its ability
to regenerate. You would therefore need to reduce it to
below zero Vitality to stop it fighting, and then sever
the limbs from the body and destroy the remains in
some way to prevent its eventual full revival.

If you attempt to flee, turn to 274.

If you stand and fight, turn to 281.

259

You let go, and drop into the red glow of the room
below. To your surprise the red glow immediately
disappears and, instead of landing in a large room, you
find yourself at one end of a dark passage, with broken
glass crunching underfoot.

Fortunately, you have taken no damage, and you
should turn to 163.

260-261

260

There is, of course, no way to slow your descent.
With both feet in the bucket you stand erect, holding
on to the rope with one hand and your torch in the
other. Your speed soon threatens to blow this out
and after the first few feet you are no longer
descending through the familiar black stone blocks of
the pyramid. The walls of the shaft are a sandy blur,
and you lose all idea of distance.

With a quite literally bone-smashing impact you
reach the bottom of the shaft, and know no more.

Turn to 289.

261

The lighted torches around the white-painted walls
provide a fair amount of illumination below the
surface of the pool. Drawing a deep breath, you
plunge towards the bottom.

The pool proves to be twenty feet deep, and there is
a five-foot-square passage leading out of the pool five
feet above the bottom.

If you are in the corner of the pool nearest to the
right- hand one of the two passages which lead away
from this room, the underwater passage leads away
at right-angles to it, ten feet below.

Naturally enough, you will not have carried
everything into the pool with you, or you would
have sunk straight to the bottom. You may have one
weapon on your belt, and your pack with a few light
items in it. The rest should be noted on your
Character Sheet as having been left in the
white-painted pool room.

262-263

Should you wish to investigate the underwater
passage, turn to 29.

Otherwise you may leave the pool and dry yourself,
turning to 21.

262

You are in a five-foot-wide passage, ten feet high, with
profusely decorated walls. Paintings of humans,
animals, monsters, desert scenery, seascapes, intricate
flower design and geometrical figures cover virtually
every inch, with newer works often covering older
faded ones. You are no expert, but would estimate that
the earliest must be many hundred years old.

At one end of the passage is a plain stone door, with a
handle.

Twenty-five feet from this, the passage turns a corner
to the right.

If you turn the handle and open the door, turn to
120.

If you move to the corner, turn to 184.

If you spend some considerable time examining the
designs in the flickering light of your torch, turn to
296, but first take a note of this paragraph number.

263

Only five feet from the last corner, the passage ends at
a stout wooden door. There is a large, round, red
doorknob which seems to be made of some sort of
glass.

If you turn this and push the door open, turn to 305.

264-266

Should you walk away from the door, back to the
corner where the passage turns left, turn to 275.

264

By a sacrifice of Fortune Points you are able to retain
your grasp on the door handle. Looking down you are

horrified to see a considerable number of snakes
writhing on the floor fifteen feet below.

Opening the door should not be beyond you. You can
make out the edge, and the obvious tactic is to brace
your feet below and to one side of the handle, then turn
it and try to throw your weight forward to force the
door open.

This will need both hands though, so you would have
to drop your torch to attempt it.

If you try, turn to 37.

Otherwise, you will have to hang there until you get
tired and drop into the space below. Turn to 376.

265

At some time since discovering the white robes with
the purple embroidery, you apparently decided to put
them on. This may or may not have been a good idea: it

all depends on your sex!

If you are male, turn to 297, and if you are female,
turn to 258.

266

You close the door, while staying within the room, and
look around to see if this affects anything.

At first nothing happens, then you sense movement
above you and, looking up, see two thick tendrils

267

reaching for you from a recess above the door which
you have previously failed to notice in the dark. Before
you can move, the tendrils touch you, and each
delivers a sting which causes you 1 point of damage.

More tendrils are emerging from the recess and you
realize you will have to fight if you are to remain in
the room. Deduct 2 Vitality Points from your
Character Sheet and, if you are staying to fight, turn
to 250.

If the 2 points of damage are sufficient to kill you,
turn to 289.

If you prefer to flee, you will be able to re-open the
door and escape without further damage. Hastily
you close the door from the other side and turn to
2A7.

267

You have come to a closed wooden door only five feet
along a passage. The door has a handle on the left, in
the shape of a ring held in the jaws of a crocodile.

If you turn the handle to try to open the door, turn to
187.

Five feet in the other direction is a T-junction. The
passage you are in continues past it to another,
similar-looking door, while another passage turns off
to the right.

If you move to this junction, turn to 17.

All is quiet, as you stand by the door, but if you
wish to press your ear against it to see if you can
hear anything on the other side, turn to 24.

More tendrils are emerging fixm the recess.

268-269

268

The room proves to be fifteen feet square. The panel
through which you dropped is set in the ceiling above
the centre point of one wall, and there is another panel,
rather smaller, in the centre of the ceiling. This glows a
dull red, and you can feel a considerable warmth
radiating from it.

You can only see one door, and that is in the centre of
the wall on your left. However, your attention
concentrates more on a number of rope-like tendrils
which have emerged from a recess above the door and
are wavering towards you.

As there is no way to reach the opening above, you will
either have to stand and fight, or make a run for the
door beneath the recess, hoping both to avoid the
tendrils and that the door is not fastened.

To fight, turn to 250, and to run, turn to 188.
269

The alcove is five feet wide, ten feet high and a little
over two feet deep. However, there is no floor, merely a
shaft leading down and narrowing as it goes. Five feet
below floor level it opens out and there is obviously a
room down there. There is a glass panel at the bottom
of the shaft, which you imagine must be set in the
ceiling of the room below.

All is quiet and still down in the room.

If you wish, you can lower yourself down the shaft,
break the panel and drop into the room. Should you
take this course, turn to 378. {You cannot find
anywhere suitable to attach a rope, even if you have
one.)

270-272

Otherwise, you stay in the passage above. If you
move on to the comer, ten feet away where a
passage turns off to the right, turn to 393.

If you go the other way there is a short passage
leading from the other side of the passage only five
feet away. Turn to 157.

270

At some time since discovering the white robes with
the green embroidery, you apparently decided to put
them on. This may or not have been a good idea: it all
depends on your sex!

If you are male, turn to 258, and if you are female,
turn to 297.

271

As you step into the room, the door starts to swing
shut. You turn quickly to make sure your way out is
not threatened, and have just time to note (with relief)
that there are similar handles on both sides, when the
Cheetah springs on you.

Somewhat to your dismay, its chain proves to be over
thirty feet long, so it can readily reach any part of the
room.

Should you try to stop the door shutting and escape
from the room, turn to 75.

If you turn to fight the Cheetah, turn to 183.
272

Weapon at the ready, you step into the doorway to fight
the first of the chained Hounds. In fact, the chain gives
you a slight advantage, you Soon find, and after the first

273-275

round of combat you may add 1 to your Expertise
score while fighting these opponents.

The first Hound has Expertise 12, Vitality 8 and
does 2 points of damage. If you emerge the victor,
turn to 288.

If you find the fight going against you, you will be
able to withdraw as your opponent is chained. In
this case turn to 371, but remember that the door
will still be open.

Should the Hound kill you, turn to 289.
273

As you walk down the long passage towards the
door, you suddenly detect a difference in the sound
of your footsteps. It seems there may be an empty
space below the floor on which you walk.

If you carry on to the door, turn to 307.

If you turn back, you should either turn to: 303, if
you had just left the corner forty feet from the
door.

Or 87 if you had been walking along a long,
straight passage.

274

You turn to flee, but the long legs of the Troll soon
allow it to catch up, and you feel a smashing blow to
the back of the head which crumples you to the
floor.

Turn to 286.

275

You stand at a right-angled corner in the passage.

276-277

To your left, the passage ends at a door only five feet
away. If you wish to examine the door, turn to 263.

To your right, the passage only goes five feet before
turning a corner to the right. If you decide to move
on to this second comer, turn to 363.

276

Having managed to survive the effect of the juices on
your hand, you are now bent double in the
three-foot-high space, balanced on one foot with a
torch in one hand and a boot in the other. At least the
shaft is right beside you if you can manage to escape up
it.

You have no firm footing to help you work your way
up, and even pulling your boot back on could cause you
to lose your balance. Somehow you doubt if you could
survive a full-length sprawl on the Amoeba.

If you try to get your boot back on first, turn to 308.

If you prefer to try climbing as you are, turn to 340.

277

The door opens easily, revealing a square room with
walls fifteen feet long extending ahead and to your
right. It seems to be used as a store and contains several
brooms, some empty buckets, two large barrels full of
water, half-a-dozen empty waterskins, a twelve-foot
ladder, two fifty-foot coils of rope, a bundle of torches
and, in the far corner, a heap of clean sand.

You cannot move the water barrels, but can manage to
carry any two of these items with you, as well as the
equipment already in your possession, unless you fill a
bucket with sand or water, in which case you can only
take that one (they are large buckets!).

278-279

You decide to leave all but one of your own waterskins
here, as you cannot imagine you are likely to need
more here, and can collect them on the way out.
Amend your Character Sheet for this, and any items
you take along.

The door will swing shut behind you, but is readily
opened again. If you return to this room later, the items
you remove will not have been replaced.

When you leave the room, turn to 151.

278

Following your successful combat you carry on in the
same direction until the stars fade from the
brightening sky, and the sun rises with the desert's
dramatic suddenness. Looking around you spot a large
rocky crag with a number of openings, and are soon
removing your equipment in the welcome coolness of
a deep cave.

You settle down for a day's rest, ana should turn to
182.

279

The door opens to reveal a large room lit by a warm red
glow. The air is fiUed by a deep humming noise. At the
far end, over sixty feet away, you can see another door,
centrally placed, directly opposite where you stand. Li
the comers of the room are various items, too far away
to identify for the moment. The room is not quite
square, being a little over fifty feet wide, and there is
one more door in each of the left- and right-hand walls
placed a little nearer your end than the centre.

There is a dark, shiny panel set in the ceiling directly
above the door in the left-hand wall.

A device stands on the floor.

280

A little over twenty-five feet in fi"ont of you, at the
halfway point between the left- and right-hand doors,
some form of device stands on the floor, and the
humming noise appears to come from it. You can see a
number of small wheels turning and what seem to be
spinning lenses occasionally produce small flashes of
Ught. The whole thing is about two feet high and three
feet wide.

If you enter the room to investigate further, turn to
55.

If you prefer not to go in, you must close the door
and turn back to 63.

280

There are four five-foot-wide steps, each one foot
high, leading up to the dais on which stands the
statue of the bird-headed man. This dais itself stands
two feet higher than the top step, which you are now
on, and extends five feet out from the wall: it is ten
feet wide.

You are level with the bas-relief of the man proffering
the bowl, and can now see that there is a small hole
leading from the bowl diagonally downwards into the
wall. It looks intended to drain any liquid which might
be poured into the bowl.

If you pour some water into the bowl to test this
theory, turn to 136.

If you return to the floor of the large room, turn to
116.

If you clamber on to the dais to examine the statue,
turn to 56.

281-282

281

Conduct the combat in the normal way. The Troll's
details are given in 258 and you should remember, if
you manage to hit it, to add back 1 Vitality Point to its
score in every successive round until it reaches its
original total.

If you succeed in reducing it to below zero Vitality,
you can quickly sever the limbs and head, kicking
the pieces apart, and will be safe for the moment.
Add 5 Fortune Points to your Character Sheet and
turn to 290.

If the Troll reduces you to below 4 Vitality Points,
turn to 306, unless this actually takes you to zero
Vitality in which case turn to 289.

282

In normal circumstances, working your way up the
shaft would not be overly difficult. You could stand on
the top rung of the ladder, wedge your elbows and
shoulders in the shaft and, providing you could get one
knee up the rest would be relatively easy.

Doing it under attack from stinging, rope-Uke tendrils
is another matter. Calculate E-i4H and, if you manage
a score of 16, you will succeed in gaining the opening
above. You may NOT use Fortune to modify your coin
score in this instance. If successfiil, you will still have
suffered several stinging blows in the process, and have
taken 7 more points of damage.

Amend your Character Sheet accordingly and, if
this damage was sufficient to kill you, turn to 289.

If still alive, having reached the opening at the top of
the shaft, turn to 146 (first paragraph only).

283-284

Should you fail to achieve a score of 16, you will fall to
the floor below, demolishing the ladder on the way.
You will have taken 3 points of damage from the
tendrils while trying to climb the shaft, and 3 more
points of damage from the fall itself.

Amend your Character Sheet, turning to 289 if this
brings about your death, or 250 if you survive.

283

You will eventually realize there is no way out of your
predicament. If you enter the red-light area you will be
transported to the end of the twenty-foot passage, and
that only leads back to where you are now.

The beings using the pyramid appear to have provided
the means for you to stay here in reasonable comfort,
so you may as well make the best of it.

Unfortunately, when they do come this character's
adventuring days will be over, so perhaps you would
Uke to try again with a new character. Ciood luck!

284

The second Hound is slightly smaller than the first,
having Expertise 12 and Vitality 8. It still does 2 points
of damage, however.

If you wish to fight it, conduct the combat in the
normal way and, should it manage to kill you, turn
to 289.

Should you prefer to try one of your Potions on it, you
will have to pour the entire contents of a bottle on to
some of your food (perhaps half a loaf or a small cake)
and throw it to the Hound. If you try this, take a note of

285

this paragraph number then, to determine the effect,
turn to:

124 if you use the blue liquid

156 if you use the orange liquid

198 if you use the green liquid

Should you manage to kill the second Hound, add 2
Fortune Points and 1 Point of Expertise to your
Character Sheet, then turn to 102.

285

You decide to move the ladder a little to one side, in
case whatever is causing the bright light should fall
through the panel when you break it.

Carefully you prop it against the wall some two feet to
the side, then climb the ladder with your gaze averted.
Steadying yourself at the top, you draw a weapon and
lunge powerfully upwards at the centre of the panel.
There is a crash, and shards of glass start falling, but
before any of them reach the floor you feel a numbing
blow to the hand holding the weapon, as though a
Giant had stamped upon it. Simultaneously your heart
leaps in your chest, and you feel yourself falling from
the ladder as your senses desert you.

You will need to be very lucky to survive this
shocking experience. If you have enough Fortune
Points, you may delete 8 of them from your
Character Sheet and turn to 205.

If you do not have enough, you will have to turn to
289.

286-287

286

The blow from the Troll stunned you and the next
thing you know you are lying in front of the giant
screen, which is covered with moving bands of red at
the moment. Q£ you have not seen the screen before,
make a note of this paragraph number, read 158 for a
description of the room you are now in, then turn back
here.)

You fmd you are unable to move, being tied hand and
foot to a long, stout length of metal.

Suddenly the screen changes to blue, you hear the
white-haired man shout, 'Now, now!' and the Troll
picks up the length of metal and propels you through
the screen.

For an instant you are able to look around a rather
similar room, excql that there is no sign of the metal
shape that occupies the one you left so precipitately.
Indeed this room seems empty and deserted, lit only by
the Ught of the screen which here, oddly enough, is red.

Then you take a breath, and immediately your lungs
feel as if they are on fire, your heart pounds, and in a
few seconds you lose consciousness.

Turn to 289.

287

You stand before a closed wooden door at the end of a
five-foot-wide passage. There is a handle on the
right-hand side in the shape of a ring of metal set in a
small metal representation of a skull.

If you turn the handle, turn to 1A\.

Looking away from the door, you see the passage

288-290

ends at another door twenty feet away. There is a
turning to the left, ten feet away, and if you proceed
to that point, turn to 17.

If you press your ear to the door and listen for a
while, before turning the handle, turn to 373.

288

The first of the Hounds lies dead: the second strains to
get at you, standing on its hindlegs with its chain
stretched taut. You may add 2 Fortune Points to your
Character Sheet for this success, and pause to take any
Potions if you wish.

You can now investigate those parts of the room
which the second Hound cannot reach, and should
turn to 320.

289

Sad to say, death has claimed you in one fashion or
another, and one can only hope you did not suffer
unduly. Fortunately, you can always adopt the guise of
another adventurer, start again, and hopefully have
better luck next time.

After all, you have some knowledge of what to look out
for!

290

It will take the pieces of the Troll a little while to
regenerate or re-combine, whichever they try, and in
the meantime you turn to deal with the old man, who
is attempting to sidle away.

He is not very fast on his feet and appears to have no
weapons. You are quickly able to secure him and then
turn your attention to the problem of Troll disposal.

291

The only way to be sure it cannot regenerate is to
destroy all the pieces, either with lire or acid. You
have seen no sign of fire or the materials for making
such down here and, when you ask your now
subdued captive how he cooks, he shows you two
metal panels set in a workbench which glow red-hot
when he turns a little knob.

This is yet another marvel to you, but not much help
in your present need. You ask about acid, and the old
man denies knowledge of such in the area.
Something tells you he is lying and you feel a search
of the area may be worthwhile. (Of course, you may
have already found some acid, in which case you will
know where to go.)

Turn to 313 as the disposal of the Troll pieces
must be your immediate concern, and you and the
old man will have to cart them along with you.

291

You have reached a point where a side passage comes
in to join a long, straight passage to form a
T-junction.

Looking down the side passage you can see that it
ends only fifteen feet away at a blank wall. However,
there seems to be a wooden door occupying the last
five feet of the left-hand wall. If you go to investigate
the door, turn to 151.

As you stand facing the side passage, the one you are
in extends to the left and right. Looking to the right
you can see a heavy wooden door across the passage
only fifteen-feet away.

292-293

If you move to this door and push it open, turn to
399.

In the other direction, the passage runs for forty feet
to a crossroads. If you travel to that point, turn to
255.

292

Stretching out your hands, you are able to feel the
walls of the shaft around you, and judge that they are
still five feet apart. You stand still, and try to feel for a
current in the water. You can detect nothing though,
and all is silent.

This all strikes you as distinctly odd. The dune
appeared to be well over 100 feet high, and even
allowing for the fact that the sand had somehow been
compacted as hard as a rock, you cannot understand
how a well could hold water at what must be several
feet above ground level, without apparently being fed
in any way by stream, seepage or condensation.

If you climb back up the rope, turn to 28.

If you decide to light a torch after all, turn to 196.

293

As you turn the key, the hasp springs open and you feel
a shock as if you had suddenly been showered with
ice-cold water.

A powerful spell had been cast upon the chest to
prevent interference. In order to avoid the effect you
will have to sacrifice 5 Fortune Points.

If you have sufficient points available, delete them
from your Character Sheet and turn to 85.

294-295

Should you either not have sufficient Fortune
Points to avoid the spell effects, or alternatively
prefer to allow the spell to do its worst, turn to
400.

294

When you try twisting the ring to which the larger
Hound was chained, it turns soundlessly and proves
to have been well oiled.

It also proves to be the device which opens a secret
door set in the wall below the ceiUng panel through
which you entered. Beyond the door is a passage
which only leads five feet before turning a comer to
the right.

If you enter the passage and move to the corner,
turn to 239 but bear in mind that both Hounds
will be dead if you come this way again.

Otherwise you should turn to 166.

295

You are in a five-foot-wide, twenty-foot-long passage
with a door at each end.

One door is hinged on the left, appears to open
towards you, and has a black metal handle shaped
like a fish.

If you wish to open this door, turn to 20.

The other door is hinged on the right, has a white
painted doorknob, and appears to open away fom
you.

If you wish to open it, turn to 52.
The passage has no other features of interest.

You turn the key.

296-297

296

You carefully examine both walls of the passage as far
as the comer, tracing the designs and trying to read any
message which may be concealed therein. Unfortu-
nately you meet with no success.

Even more unfortunately, peering at intricate designs
in a poor light has an adverse affect on your eyesight,
which will take several days to recover, unless you
drink a complete Healing Potion immediately.

If you have one to spare, and drink it, this will also
have the usual effect on any damage points you may
have suffered (see Introduction) as well as curing your
vision. Otherwise, your Expertise is reduced by 1 point
for the remainder of this adventure.

Amend your Character Sheet accordingly, then turn
back to the paragraph number you just noted.

297

You find yourself somewhat incongruously dressed for
adventuring, in white robes facing a white-haired old
man and a nine-foot-tall Troll, itself outlandishly

garbed in leather jerkin, trousers and boots.

The three of you stare at each other, and you cannot
help but smile at the tableau you must present. As if

reassured, the old man greets you and ask if you are
here for initiation, saying he hadn't realized any new
'Keepers of the Temple' had been appointed.

You are a little dubious at the term 'initiation', but it
seems best to agree.

He obviously expects nothing else and, telling the
Troll to prepare some food, says he will take you on

298-299

The Tour'. It emerges that all the initiation involves is
a conducted tour around the area while the old man
explains what is going on.

Turn to 354.

298

Steadying yourself against the wall, you lunge upwards
with your weapon at the centre of the dark panel. It
does indeed prove to have been made of glass, which
shatters and falls to the floor around you, fortunately
without causing any damage.

There is a shaft leading upwards, widening slightly as
it goes, and about five feet above the ceiling you can
see a dark space on the side away from the room. You
feel you could work your way up the shaft to reach
this, but as you consider the possibility you sense some
movement behind you, and receive a stinging blow on
each shoulder.

You suffer 2 points of damage and look anxiously (and
rather unsteadily) round to see what caused it.

Reduce the Vitality Score on your Character Sheet
appropriately, then turn to 314, unless the 2 damage
points were sufficient to kill you, in which case turn

torn.

299

There is a comer in the passage at this point, and
looking in one direction you will see the passage mns
straight as far as you can see into the darkness.

If you move that way, turn to 7.

ff you have just come from that direction, the passage

300-301

turns left here, and again stretches straight as far as you
can see into the darkness.

Turn to 43 if you take this direction.

300

Unft)rtunately for you, the white-clad desert people
have taken precautions against the pyramid being
entered in their absence.

When they return again in a few days, they will
discover that the trap has been sprung, and have ways
to observe you in your predicament. So although you
may still be aUve, assuming your food and water hold
out, they will see no point in giving you the
satisfaction of a last fight to take some of them with
you. They have certain uses for strangers who fall into
their hands aUve, and will wait until you are too weak
to resist before securing you.

/ regret the adventure is over for this character, so
turn to 289.

301

You have arrived at a comer in the passage. Looking in
one direction, the passage travels as far as you can see
into the darkness.

If you wish to go that way, turn to 372.

If you have just come fom that direction, the passage
turns right at this comer, and ends some seven or eight
feet away. However, only the first five feet of the
passage has a floor; the last stretch is merely the top of
a shaft leading downwards.

Turn to 12, should you wish to have a look down the
shaft.

302-303

302

When the old man's palm is pressed to the metal plate
there is a loud click and the massive metal doors sUde
open, retreating into slots in the walls.

Beyond is a twenty-five foot wide, thirty-feet-high
passage which is in darkness at the moment. When fee
glass panel on the other side of the door is pressed,
however, a row of panels set along the centre of the
ceiling cast a bright yellow light illimiinating the
length, which looks about 200 feet.

Evenly spaced along the left-hand wall are seven doors,
each ten feet wide and fifteen feet high. You can see
there are similar metal plates set in the wall on the
left-hand side of each door.

If you enter this passage with the old man, the main
doors at the end will remain open, and he tells you they
will stay open until he presses the plate again.

Turn to 366 if you wish to discover what lies beyond
the various doors.

If you do not wish to enter this passage, the old man
palms the panel again, the doors close, and you
should turn to 62.

303

You have come to a comer in the passage.

Looking in one direction, you can see a corner
thirty -five feet away where the passage turns left. If
you go to that corner, turn to 39.

If you have just come from that direction, the
passage turns right where you are, and runs as far as
you can see into the darkness. You can make out a

304-305

door in the right-hand wall forty feet away, and if
you proceed to that point, turn to 273.

304

You elect to fight the second of the Hounds. As
previously explained, your Expertise is temporarily

increased by 1 point for this combat, and this Hound has
Expertise 13, Vitality 9 and does 2 points of damage.

If you triumph again, turn to 336.

If you find the fight going against you, you can
withdraw and either leave the room ( turning to 371
and closing the door) or investigate those parts of
the room which the second Hound cannot reach
(turning to 2)2^).

Should the Hound kill you first, turn to 289.
305

Opening the door you see a large room beyond, bathed

in a deep red glow. You also become aware of a
low-pitched humming noise. When your eyes have
adjusted to the strange Ught, you see that the room

measures something over fifty feet across to the far
wall, where you can see another, closed door opposite.

The right-hand wall of the room is some twenty-five
feet fix)m your doorway, and there is another closed
door in the centre of that.

The left-hand wall also has a door centrally placed, but
this seems rather further away, perhaps thirty-five feet.
There are some objects in the comers of that end of the
room, but you cannot readily identify them kom here.

Halfway between you and the door opposite is some
sort of device with a number of turning wheels and

306-307

spinning lenses. It stands on the floor and is about two
feet high and perhaps a little more in length and
breadth. The humming noise seems to be coming fiiom
this device.

If you enter the room, turn to 55.

If you decide against it, close the door and turn back
tolJSi.

306

Continue the combat, but with this difference. The
TroU is now trying to stun you and, if it hits you again,
wdU succeed.

If this happens, turn to 286.

In the meantime you, of course, are trying to kill it,
wounded though you may be.

If you succeed, you sever the limbs and head,
kicking the pieces apart, and should turn to 290
while adding 5 Fortune Points to your Character
Sheet.

307

You reach the door. Your footsteps still sound hollow,
but nothing untoward has happened so far.

Facing the door, you see that it is made of the usual
stout wood, with a metal handle on the right-hand
side. This is circular, and represents a snake
swallowing its ovm tail. The door appears to open
towards you.

If you turn the handle and pull it open, turn to 351.

308-309

To your right, the passage goes a further forty feet to a
corner where it turns right.

If you move on to that point, turn to 303.

In the other direction, the passage travels as far as you
can see into the darkness.

If you go that way, turn to 87.

308

As previously mentioned, even so mundane a task as
pulling on one boot can be difficult when bent double
in a confined space on an unsteady surface while
holding a burning torch in one hand.

Calculate E + 4H-T, and you will need a score of 15
to succeed. Fortune Points may be expended to
modify your score. If you cannot achieve a score of
15 you overbalance, fall flat on the by now
moisture-covered surface of the Amoeba and lose
consciousness.

Turn to 289 if this happens.

If you succeed in getting the boot on, your troubles are
by no means over, as a few blobs of the jelly-like

Amoeba had found their way inside, and the astringent
juice now attacks the softer flesh of your foot.

This time you will need to sacrifice 3 Fortune Points to
avoid losing consciousness, and again should turn to
289 if you cannot do this.

If you can, amend your Character Sheet
accordingly, and turn to 340 to climb the shaft.

309

Unfortunately, no one will come to investigate this

310

area for several days, by which time your sources of
illumination will have long been exhausted, and
possibly your food and water as well.

In any event, you will no longer be in a position to be
rescued, and the adventure will have ended
unpleasantly.

310

The Mountain Lion is under no particular disadvantage
in the faint starlight, so your Expertise is as normal for
this combat.

Your opponent has Expertise 12 and Vitality 10, but
it has more than one attack. Each forepaw does 1
point of damage if it hits you, and in each combat
round you will have to establish the Expertise scores
for two attacks from the Lion against one from you.
If your score is higher than both the Lion's attacks,
then you will hit and it will miss. If one of its
attacks beats your score, you will miss and it will
hit.

However, the danger comes if both of its scores are
better than yours. If that happens, it holds rather than
claws you, and the forepaws do no damage. Instead it
bites you for 2 points of damage and rakes you with its
hind paws for 4 more. So a double hit will mean 6
points of damage!

If the Lion overcomes you, turn to 289.

Should you succeed in killing it, you may add 3 Fortune
Paints and 1 Point of Expertise to your Character Sheet.

If you wish to take any Potions you may do so now.

Then turn to 342.

311-312

311

You have no wish to add to your difficulties in the

desert by taking the old man aiong, but something in
you shrinks from the idea of killing him in cold blood.

Your companions have no such compunction, and urge
that you make an end of him (or, if you will turn your
back for a moment, they will attend to it themselves).

In the end, you decide to leave the old man here. The
next visit of the white-clad desert-dweUers should only
be a short while oS, and he can take his chances with
them. He certainly seems unable to do you any harm
now, and it is doubtful that he could return to his old
haunts without assistance.

You drive him back into the pyramid, and are ready to
leave.

Turn back to 222.

312

The Hyenas lie dead, but you have suffered one or more
bites to the arm holding your torch. Examining the
wounds, you imagine they are already beginning to
throb and swell, and fear the animals may well have
infected you with the dreaded rabies.
If you have a Cure Disease Potion, you may drink it
( amending your Character Sheet) and turn to 344.

If you are prepared to sacrifice 5 Fortune Points, you
will escape the effects and may turn to 344 after
amending your Character Sheet.

Otherwise, you will have to use a more painful
remedy. Drawing your blade across the wounds you
suck them vigorously, spitting out the poisoned blood.

313

then heat your blade in the torch and cauterize the
wounds. For every bite you suffered in the combat,
this remedy will cost you 3 more damage points to
be deducted from your VitaUty total.

ff this kills you, turn to 289.

ffyou survive, turn to 344.

313

You are in the long, twenty-five foot passage, having
at least temporarily dismembered the Troll, and are
searching for some acid to dissolve the pieces. The
captive old man has been forced to help you carry
the parts of his late companion.

Having already searched the workshop where the old
man and the Troll had been engaged, you should
ignore the centre of the three openings in this

passage.

If you wish to move to the large doors which are
stuck partially open, turn to 105.

If you wish to check out the opening furthest from
those doors, turn to 238.

If you wish to try the opening nearest the doors
turn to 169.

In any event, ignore mentions of the Troll or the
sound of voices in this area.

Note the number 398 but do NOT turn to that

paragraph yet. When and if you find the acid, and
cast all the pieces of the Troll into it, THEN you
can turn to 398 and get the old man's story.

314-315

314

To your horror you find a number of long, thick
tendrils have stretched across the room towards you
fom a previously unnoticed recess above the door. The
first two have shovm the sort of damage this monster
can cause.

Obviously you cannot hope to fight properly while
standing on a ladder with your back to the monster, so
you really only have two choices, neither particularly
attractive.

You can try to scramble up the shaft, hoping it will
prove a route to escape beyond the range of the
tendrils. Or, you can descend to the floor, which will
give you a reasonable chance to hack at the tendrils
with your weapon.

In either case, it seems likely that you will suffer more
damage before reaching your goal.

If you decide to try to climb out of trouble, turn to
282.

If you prefer to stay and fight on the fioor of the
room, turn to 394.

315

You are in the middle of a long, dark passage. Forty feet
away in one direction the passage turns a comer to the
left. The same distance away in the second direction, it
turns a comer to the right.

If you take the first direction, turn to 95.
If you take the second, turn to 83.

316-318

316

The Hound catches the food in midair and swallows it
almost without pausing in its furious baying. It
certainly doesn't seem to have affected its feelings
towards you.

Turn to the third paragraph of 364.

317

The ladder is made of iron and is slightly rough to the
touch. You realize it is probably quite old and has been
painted many times to prevent the damp air in this
pool-room irom rusting it away.

This whole area gives the impression of fairly frequent
use, and you can but hope that the normal users do not
return to find you here.

Thinking to take the ladder with you, you try, but find
it firmly fixed by several metal brackets set in the wall.

If you climb up through the hole in the ceiling, turn
to 125.

If you descend into the room, turn to 189.
318

As you did come dowoi the shaft, the platform rests on
the floor beneath and the rope dangles dovm the shaft

fi-om above.

Through here', your guide continues, opening the door
at 73 and leading the way into 89, 'is where we dump
all the bits and pieces we no longer need.' He indicates
the pile of scrap metal in 240, and adds 'we even have a
vat of acid in the comer, which we use to dispose of
anything which proves dangerous'.

He presses his palm to the plate.

319

Leading the way back again, he concludes, 'Well,
that's my little domain. Have you any questions?'

You decide to take a chance, before you get back to
the Troll.

'Err . .. what about the prisoners?'

'Oh yes,' he replies, 'I could use some more soon:
there are only two left and they aren't in very good
shape.'

You have passed back through 89 and 142 when he
asks casually if you want to see the prisoners. Trying
to sound equally casual you agree, and he stops at
the doors at 94, halfway along 62. He presses the
glass panel at 137, then moves to the metal plate at
126 and presses the palm of his hand to it.

There is a click and the doors open. 'I managed to
decipher the spells to operate this, some years ago,'
he announces importantly. 'Now it only responds to
my hand and will kill anyone else who touches it, so
beware!'

Turn to 329.

319

You have come to a T-junction in the passages.

Looking down the central one, with the others to
your left and right, you can see it only leads fifteen
feet to a closed door. Halfway along the right-hand
wall is a five-foot opening where another passage
appears to turn off.

If you go as far as that passage, turn to 219.

To your right, the passage you are in extends forty

320

feet, then turns left. If you proceed to that corner,
turn to 15.

To your left, the same passage goes thirty-five feet
then turns left. If you go there, turn to 95.

320

With one Hound dead, but the other still very much
alive and eager to get at you, you can physically search
rather more than half the room, including three of the
corners.

Your first interest, however, lies in the ceiling. There
are three panels, each two-feet square, apparently set
into it flush with the surface. One is in the centre of
the room, glows dull red, and is obviously the source of
the warmth. Another is set above the centre of the
right-hand wall, and gives out a light as bright as the
sun. The last is set over the centre of the left-hand
wall, and is quite dark.

Turning your attention to the walls, you soon find
TWO secret doors! One of these is in the centre of the
wall which was on your right as you entered and the
other is in the right-hand end of the wall opposite the
entrance.

You can, however, see no obvious ways to open the
doors. The only objects to break the smoothness of the
black walls are the two rings set in them to hold the
Hounds' chains.

If you try twisting the ring to which the dead Hound
was chained, turn to 352.

If you determine to fight the second Hound, turn to
304.

321-322

If you leave the room, turn to 371 and close the
door behind you.

If you close the door, but stay inside the room,
turn to 384.

If you wish to investigate the ceiling panels, turn
to 202.

321

You stand in a five-foot-wide passage, at a point
where a short side passage joins it.

Looking down this side passage you can see it only
goes five feet to a point where a shaft leads
downwards.

If you go to look down the shaft, turn to 11.

If you look down the passage to the right, you can
see another side passage turning off to the left after
thirty feet, while this passage continues beyond.

Turn to 157 if you wish to move to that point.

In the opposite direction, the passage runs as far as
you can see into the darkness.

If you wish to go that way, turn to 141.
322

You decide to leave the old man here, bound and
gagged, and explore the rest of the area on your own.

You know where the Troll should be (preparing some
rood in one of the rooms off the long passage) and so
long as you avoid that passage you should not meet
it. If you do, it will instantly attack as it will assume
you have brought some harm to its master.

323-324

If you subsequently decide to come back to question
the old man, you will have to turn to 398. You should
therefore note that number in case of need.
For now, turn to 62 to commence your search.

323

You stand at a T-junction where three passages meet:
you are facing the centre one with others at
right-angles to your left and right.

The passage in front of you runs into the darkness as
far as you can see (fifty feet). After thirty feet a side
passage turns off to the right.

If you wish to move on as far as that point, you

should turn to 123.
The passage to your left turns a comer to the right after
forty feet.

Turn to 251 if you decide to go there.
The third passage, to your right, goes thirty-five feet
before turning a comer to the left.

Turn to 49 if you go that way.

324

The descent is not difficult, but unless you left your
torch burning in the room above, will have to be made
in complete darkness.

If you did take this precaution you may add 1 Fortune
Point to your Character Sheet. However, after thirty
feet or so you will still be in darkness, although the

square of light above may give you some comfort.
Eventually your feet splash into cold water. Cautiously

325-326

you lower yourself a little further, and find that it only
comes up to your waist. You are able to stand on the
bottom and can feel the bucket beside your legs.

If you wish to re-light your torch, turn to 196.

Should you prefer to feel around in the dark, turn to
292.

To help you keep your sense of direction, let us assume
you descended the rope facing in the direction of the
door into the room above.

325

Steadying yourself on the top rung of the ladder, you
turn the handle and thrust the door open. The floor
swings back into place beneath you, knocking the
ladder away, and you scramble forward through the
doorway to get clear.

There is a splintering noise as the two halves of the
floor close on the ladder. Such is their force that the
ladder breaks in two, and as you turn to regard the
room you find there is now only a five-foot length of
ladder left in it.

This will only be enough to enable you to reach
some ten feet from the floor. Amend your Character
Sheet accordingly and turn to 107, ignoring the first
paragraph.

326

You try to twist the ring to which the smaller Hound
was chained. At first this resists, then turns stiffly
anti-clockwise. As it does, with a screech of protesting
metal a secret door opens in the centre of the wall
below the shining yellow panel.

327-328

You can see beyond a five-foot-wide corridor, which
leads away for only ten feet before turning a corner to
the left.

If you move to the corner, turn to 131 but bear in

mind the state in which you have left the room,
which may differ in details with its description if
you return this way.

If you remain in the room, turn back to 166.

327

An athletic adventurer such as yourself should be able
to negotiate a shaft like this by 'chimneying' your way
with shoulders, elbows and knees. Calculate E -i-
4H - T and, if you score 13, you will be successful. You
may use Fortune to bring your score up to this point if
necessary.

If you succeed, turn to 195 if ascending, and 355 if
descending.

Bear in mind, from now on, that this glass panel is
broken.

Should you fail to achieve a score of 13, you will fall to
the floor below, breaking the ladder irreparably as you
do, and suffering 3 points of damage.

You should amend your Character Sheet
appropriately before turning to 355.

328

You decide to break the left-hand ceiling panel.
Steadying yourself on the ladder, you draw a weapon
and drive it upwards at the centre of the panel. There is
a splintering crash, and shards of glass fall around you
to the floor.

329

Above the broken panel is a space two feet long, one
foot wide and one foot high. Some sort of delicate
apparatus had been suspended in the centre but your
blow appears to have damaged this. It now hangs
askew, and seems to consist of some strands of thin
metal and curved sheets so highly polished that at
first you take it for silver. In fact, it turns out to be
thin steel.

There is nothing else of interest, so you descend to
the floor.

Turn to 344.

329

Beyond the doors lies another well-lit, twenty-five-
foot wide passage, some 200 feet in length, this time

with seven doors spaced along the left-hand wall.
The doors are ten feet wide and fifteen feet high, and
there is another circular metal plate to the left of

each one.

Only the first is in use now', the old man declares,
leading the way to the first door and indicating a
peep-hole in the centre.

You peer through and see two ragged, unhealthy-
looking men looking apprehensively towards the
door. Both are seated on hard metal bunks and the
furnishings look spartan in the extreme.

The old man laughs. 'We had to take all the couches
and cushions out when we turned some of these
rooms into cells. The old inhabitants used to live
here like kings, but there was no sense in letting
slaves get soft!'

'Does your palm operate these locks too?' you ask

Two ragged unhealthy-looking men.

330-331

casually and, when he nods, you decide the time to
stop the pretence has arrived.

As he is taken completely by surprise you have no
difficulty in overpowering him. You press his palm
to the metal plate and release the prisoners.

Turn to 345.

330

As you reach the foot of the ladder again, you sense
movement behind you and feel something touch you
on both shoulders at once. The touches sting
painfully, and you suffer 2 points of damage. (Reduce
the Vitality score on your Character Sheet
accordingly.) If this is sufficient to kill you, turn to
289.

Spinning round, you are horrified to see several long,
thick tendrils have emerged from a previously
unnoticed recess above the door, and stretched across
the room towards you. The first two have shown the
potential damage that can be caused.

Being between you and the door, they are cutting off
your escape route, and you have no course but to
fight.

Turn to 250.

331

You stand outside the pyramid entrance at the top of
the flight of steps leading down to the sands. There
is no sign of life or movement anywhere.

If you go back inside turn to 23.

Should you now wish to return to Seven Wells,
you should turn to 222.

332-333

332

If you are prepared to sacrifice some of your remaining
food, you may be able to find half a loaf or something
which a Hound will eat. And you may have found
something in your travels which would suit your
needs.

In one section of the rooms were some Potion bottles.
If you have these on your Character Sheet, you can
empty one on the food before throwing it to the Hound.
To discover the effect turn to:

124 if you use the blue liquid

156 if you use the orange liquid.

220 if you use the green liquid

Should you not have these items on your Character
Sheet, you can still throw the Hound the food and
turn to 316. In any event, whatever you drop into
the room must be deleted from your Character
Sheet.

When you have concluded your business with the
Hound below, turn to the third paragraph of 364.

333

The water in the bowl has become slightly discoloured,
perhaps from the residues of various other liquids
placed in the bowl over the centuries.

Whatever the cause, the liquid you now drink acts as a
Cure Disease Potion. If you are presently affected by
any disease it will be cured, or if you would otherwise
succumb to a disease later in the adventure, this
draught will now prevent its affecting you. Note,
however, that only one past or future disease is cured

334-335

each time you drink from this bowl. If you are already

suffering from two diseases, only one will be cured, but
you can repeat the treatment with the other half of
your water.

Now turn to 253 if you wish to enter the passage, or
116 if you wish to stay in this room.

334

The old man guides you to the storeroom beyond the
third opening on the right in the long passage leading
to his living quarters and workroom.

If you have not already disposed of the Troll, this will
precipitate the encounter.

Should this happen, make a note of this paragraph
number, conduct the combat by turning to 386, then
return here if successful.

Should you prefer not to come this way and so avoid
the Troll, you can stop short by the open doors at
105 and not enter this passage.

If you reach the storeroom, turn to 382.

335

You have reached a large wooden door at the end of the
passage. The handle is a heavy-looking iron ring, set in
a carved representation of a lion's head. If you turn it to
try to open the door, turn to 107.

In the other direction the passage stretches thirty-five
feet to a corner, where it turns right.

If you go that way, turn to 203.

If you wish to press your ear to the door, in the hope
of hearing anything beyond, turn to 5.

336-337

336

You have managed to kill the second of the Hounds,

and may add 3 more Fortune Points and 1 one Point of
Expertise to your Character Sheet. If you wish to take
any Potions you may do so now, or may eat a meal if
you have not previously done so within the pyramid.
Amend your Character Sheet appropriately.

With both Hounds dead, you are now free to search the
rest of the room, and quickly find a third secret door, in
the centre of the wall below the dark ceiling panel. The
problem lies in finding a device to open it.

If you try turning one of the rings set in the wall,
turn to 368 for the one in the far left-hand comer
from the entrance, or 352 for the one in the near

right-hand corner.

If you decide to leave the room, turn to 371 and
close the door behind you.

If you close the door but stay inside the room, turn
to 384.

If you wish to investigate the ceiling panels, turn to
202.

337

As the floor opens beneath you, you are unable to reach
the safety of firm ground either to the front or rear. You
can just about touch the walls on either side, but being
five feet apart you are unable to exert enough pressure
on them to slow your fall.

Some twelve feet below floor level your fall is arrested
by a forest of slim three-foot-long bamboo spears,
several of which pierce your prostrate form.

Turn to 289.

338-340

338

The old man has seen through your masquerade and
managed to summon the Troll to his assistance. There
is no more chance to talk your way out of this: you will
have to fight or flee.

If you stand and fight here in the enormous room
with the coloured screen at one end, turn to 386.

If you try to flee there is little chance of escape, as
the long legs of the Troll will soon run you down.
Still, if you wish to try, turn to 274.

339

To your surprise, the corner of the room holds a variety
of items apparently designed to make someone
comfortable for a protracted stay.

Heaped in some confusion are a bed, two comfortable
chairs, a small table, a chess board and pieces, a barrel
of water, several slightly stale loaves, some fairly fresh
fruit, several strips of dried meat, an earthenware crock
of biscuits and several mugs and plates.

If you decide to leave by the door through which you
most recently entered, you should close it behind
you and turn to 103.

If you prefer to head for the humming device, or one
of the other doors, turn to 55.

Should you try anything else, turn to 283.
340

Working your way up the shaft will be difficult
without a firm footing to start from, as you are going to
need to stand on one foot to wedge the other knee in
the shaft when you start the climbing.

341-342

Calculate E+ 4H — T: this time you will need a score of
15 to succeed, and may use Fortune Points to modify
your score if necessary.

If you fail, you fall back onto the Amoeba, lose
consciousness and should turn to 289.

If you succeed, you drag yourself out into the
passage above and may add 2 Fortune Points for all
your efforts. Please amend your Character Sheet,
then turn to 269.

341

You twist the two-inch projection on the stone block
at the right-hand end of the bare wall. There is a click,
then the block slides five feet to the left, revealing an
opening into a passageway. Apparently there is a
corner just outside, as passages lead off to the right as
well as straight ahead.

After a few seconds the block starts to slide across to
close the opening again.

If you wish to leap through into the passage, turn to
149.

Otherwise you can stay in this room, and should
turn to 389.

342

Having defeated the Mountain Lion, you are able to
complete your second night's march without further
adventure, and as visibility begins to improve just
before dawn, you come to a wide expanse of rolling
sand-dunes. There will be no shelter out there, you
realize, and seek a cave- in the last exposed rocky
outcrop on the edge of the dunes.

The block slides to the left

343

You manage to find one, and can again spend a
restful day, eating, and taking Potions if you wish.
Remember to amend your Character Sheet if you do.

At dusk, you strike camp and head out into the
waste of dunes. All through the night you toil up one
side of the dunes and slither down the other,
checking at the top each time that the famihar
constellation is still behind you.

Eventually you are able to make out a low range of
hills ahead, and after a tiring but uneventful night
you reach the lower slopes.

Unfortunately you are unable to find a cave, or even
a valley or cliff to provide any shade or shelter this
time, and have to make do with the inadequate
shade of your tent throughout the heat of the day.
This lowers your Vitality by 2 points, but you can
eat or take any Potion you require if you still have
them. You also need to drink rather more than usual
(three-quarters of a waterskin instead of hah).

After amending your Character Sheet, turn to 18.

343

You have come to a stout wooden door across the
end of this five-foot section of passage. There is a
large round doorknob, red in colour and apparently
made of glass.

If you turn this and push the door open, turn to
215.

If you leave the door, you come to a comer where
the passage turns right, only five feet fix)m the door.

Turn to 49.

344-345

344

Apart fix)m the heap of straw and the two dead

Hyenas there is nothing of interest within the room.
You search the straw, finding a few bones and several
fieas and ticks, but nothing of value.

The only other features of note are two black panels

of some glossy material, set in the ceiling above the
centre point of each side wall. Each is two feet long
and one foot wide.

As the ceiling is fifteen feet high, you cannot
examine these further unless you have brought along
a ladder from the storeroom.

If you have, and wish to try this, turn to 392.

If you have no ladder, or no wish to look at the
panels, you leave the room and should turn to
193.

345

The prisoners are overjoyed to be released, and you
explain the situation to them.

They had been investigating the hills around the
depression with a well-equipped party, checking out
rumours of ancient artifacts originating from the
area, when they were attacked by the desert-dwellers.
The fire weapon killed most of them, and the
survivors were lowered down here for the old man to
use as slave labour or subjects for experiments. They
know nothing of other parties, and are sure they are
the only prisoners here now. Being well-to-do, they
promise you a substantial reward if you can get them
safely back to civilization.

This poses two separate problems, firstly you have to

346

leave this area and secondly you have to cross the
Groaning Desert with your new companions.

If you have come down through the main delivery shaft
or the well, the rope will still be in place and you
should be able to climb up and winch your new friends
up one at a time. However, if you came down through
the corridor trap on to the heap of metal, you need a
way to enable you to reach the end of the rope, and in
that case you will have to search for a ladder down
here.

Crossing the desert will necessitate having three full
waterskins each, in view of the relative weakness of
the other two, but you may know where to find those
up above. (If not, you will have to search!)

Turn to 361.

346

As you sever the last tendril there is a loud sighing
noise from the recess above the door, and an object
rather larger than your head bounces on the floor. The
damaged tendrils had been coiled about the body of the
monster, after you severed each one, but now they
relax in death and trail limply on the floor.

You may add 4 Fortune Points to your Character Sheet
for overcoming this particularly dangerous opponent,
and if you wish you may rest, drink Potions, or eat a
meal if you have not previously eaten within the
pyramid.

When ready turn to 218 to resume your search of the
room ( or leave if you prefer) but ignore all future
references to this monster.

347-348

347

You stand before a closed door, five feet wide and
twelve feet high. There is an 'S'-shaped handle at
chest height on the right-hand side, and the door
seems designed to open away from you. Closer
examination shows that the handle is carved to
represent a snake or worm, and that there are various
designs carved on the face of the door.

These are similar to the style of paintings on the
frieze near the entrance, but arranged in three rows.
You realize this is the 'writing' of those who built or
use the pyramid, but are unable to understand it.

To the right of this door the passage you are in
extends nine feet to a large pair of doors. If you
move on to those, turn to 225.

If you go to your left, the passage turns a corner to
the left after ten feet and you should turn to 231.

If you turn the handle and push this door open,
turn to 399.

348

You decide to climb back up the ladder, then work
your way up the shaft to the passage above.

You are becoming fairly proficient at this now:
calculate E + 4H and, if you can manage a score of
14, you will succeed and should turn to 154. (You
may use Fortune Points to modify your score, if
necessary.)

If you cannot achieve this score you will fall back
from the shaft, breaking the ladder and dragging
down the rope as you go, and will suffer 3 points of
damage when you hit the floor.

349-350

If this kills you, turn to 289; otherwise turn to 38,
but remember that you no longer have the means to
climb to the ceiling.

Amendyour Character Sheet accordingly.

349

If you have brought the twelve-foot ladder ik)m the

storeroom, you can stand it against the wall and
investigate any of the four panels set about the centre
points of the walls.

If you did not bring a ladder, there is no other way you
can reach them. (No, you can NOT use the dead
Scorpion; it's exo-skeleton is neither large nor strong
enough.)

Unless you have the ladder, turn back to 217.

You cannot investigate the large, red-glowing panel in
the centre of the ceiling as there is nothing against
which to rest the ladder. In any case, you do not feel
particularly eager to approach such a source of heat.

If you cUmb to one of the bright yellow panels you will
need to avert your gaze as you do.

Turn to 151, but first keep a note of this paragraph

number.

Turn to 109 if you wish to investigate the black
panel.

350

The water in the bowl has obviously combined with
previous offerings of wine placed in the bowl, and the
Uquid you drink is rather pleasant.

The ladder rests against the wall.

351-352

It has no particular effect, however, and you should
now choose whether to enter the passage or remain in
this large room, in which case you may as well close
the door again.

Turn to 262 if you enter the passage, or 116 if you
stay in the room. In either case you close the door.

351

To your considerable dismay, if perhaps not total
surprise, the floor falls away when you turn the handle.
Not only that but the lower part of the door and the
very wall on either side hinge at the bottom and fall
forward on top of you.

If you try to retain your grasp on the door handle,
turn to 385.

If instead you go down with the floor, trying to fall
as lightly as possible, turn to 48.

352

Taking the stout iron ring in both hands, you try

twisting it, first one way and then the other. It turns,
with a protesting screech of metal, in the
anti-clockwise direction, and a secret door opens in the
centre of the wall, five feet to your left.
Leaving the corner to look through the opening, you
see a five-foot-wide passage leading away, then turning
a comer to the left after ten feet.

If you move along the passage to the comer, turn to
131.

Otherwise, you turn the ton ring clockwise to close
the secret door, and then turn back to 320 if one

353-354

Hound is still alive, or 336 (ignoring the first
sentence) if both are dead.

353

You enter the room by a door in the centre of a wall
which proves to be fifty-five feet long.

The room is rectangular and seems to be some
sixty-five feet in the other direction. The other three
walls each have one door: one is in the centre of the
wall opposite, and the others seem to be a little past
the centre points of the left- and right-hand walls Irom
where you stand.

There is a dark, shiny panel set in the ceiling above the
door in the right-hand wall, and you can see the
mysterious, humming device on the floor between the
doors. You judge that it must be pretty well in the
centre of the sharply defined, ruby-glowing sphere
which occupies the greater part of the room.

If you decide to approach the device, or make for
one of the other doors, you will have to enter the
red-light area, and should turn to 55.

If you prefer to examine the items in the corners of
the room, using the light of your torch, turn to 339.

354

The old man will now conduct you around his domain,
and it will help if you turn for a moment to the various
paragraphs as he comments on the contents, before
turning back here. (It may be worth keeping a piece of
paper by this paragraph as a bookmark.) He starts by
leading you through 41 to 30. 'This whole area,' he
begins in a schoolmasterly fashion, from which you
guess he has made the commentary many times before.

354

'was created countless years ago by a group of master
magicians, with powers which, to us, make them
seen demi-gods. The devices in here (you are at 25),
believe it or not, create water out of the very air, and
one of my assistant's duties is to keep the well
through there (you are at 9 and he points to the hole
in the wall) filled with water for the use of your
people above.'

He conducts you back through 41, indicating the
glowing yellow panels. 'These lighting panels have
been burning for centuries and appear to need no fuel
or attention. There do not even seem to be any
flames involved.'

You pass through 110 and are ushered into 158. 'This
screen is, I am sure, a 'Gate' of some sort, and I have
been experimenting with it, off and on, for many
years. So far, all I have discovered is that one can
pass through it when it is blue, but not when it is
red. Unfortunately, no-one I have sent through has
ever come back, and the one being who came
through from the other side (some sort of small
demon so far as I could judge) died almost as soon as
it arrived.'

He indicates the vast metal object in the centre of
the room. 'I am convinced that was some sort of ship
of the ancients,' he declares, 'There were a number of
maps and charts in it, and the skis on which it
stands show scratches and wear marks consistent
with moving over sand. I also found the fire-throwers
which your people use, on board this 'vessel', though
I understand only the small one still works.'

He looks at you enquiringly and you nod wisely as
you carry on through the doors at 78.

355

1 have been trying for some time to open an especially
heavy and well-sealed chest,' he continues. 'The fact
that it is so difficult to open suggests that the contents
must be particularly valuable, and I suspect they are
either more weapons, or treasure, or perhaps both. I
should welcome any suggestions you may have, as the
opening device seems to depend on some sort of code.'

He moves on ( through 62 to 142) and indicates the
shaft in the corner. 'This, of course, is where you
came down. '(Ifit WAS where you came down, turn
to 318; if you came down another way, turn to 370.)

355

The Cheetah lies dead at your feet: you may add 4
Fortune Points to your Character Sheet, and may also
take a Potion if you wish, again amending your
Character Sheet as necessary. Any future references to
the Cheetah may be ignored, and if you later return to
this room the dead body will be here. If you have not
previously eaten within the pyramid, you may do so
now, always supposing you still have food on your
Character Sheet!

If you wish to leave by the door through which you
entered, turn to 97.

Should you decide to investigate either of the ceiling
panels, you will need a ladder. If you do happen to
have one with you, and wish to climb for a closer
look, you should first take a note of this paragraph
number then:

If you climb to examine the shining yellow panel,
turn to 257.

Or, if you try the dark panel, turn to 59.

356-357

The pile of straw and bowl (which contains the cold
remains of some sort of stew) prove to be of little
interest, but if you wish to examine the ring to
which the Cheetah was chained, turn to 27.

356

You start to wind the winch in the other direction, and
soon the required extra effort indicates you have a full
bucket on the end of the rope.

Eventually it comes back into sight and, reaching out
one hand, you are able to swing it on to the floor. The
bucket is almost full with fresh water, though when
you taste it you find it rather flat and flavourless.

Turn to 388.

357

You have entered a large rectangular room. Pacing it
out, you will find it to be thirty feet by forty-five feet. A
number of small candelabra stand on low tables around
the room, and there are several comfortable-looking

couches.

A five-foot-wide passage leads away from the centre of
one of the longer walls, and you can see that its walls
are richly decorated. After twenty-five feet it turns a
comer to the left, and you should turn to 117 if you
wish to proceed to that comer.

If you stand with your back to that passage, you can
see:

A white-painted, five-foot-wide passage leading fifteen
feet into another room from the right-hand end of the
wall opposite you.

Turn to 21 if you wish to leave by this second
passage and enter the room beyond.

358-359

The right-hand wall of the room has a row of hooks
holding white robes with a design in green
embroidered upon them. If you wish to take a set with
you, add them to your Character Sheet. (If you decide
to wear them at any time, mark your Character Sheet
Wearing white/green robes'.)

Against the left-hand wall of the room is a long, wide
shelf some four feet above the floor, on which stand a
number of boxes and bottles. About a dozen stools
have been pushed beneath the shelf, and several
mirrors hang above it. In the centre of the row of
mirrors there is a similarly shaped frame covered with
a thick green cloth.

If you wish to examine the boxes and bottles, turn
to 53.

If you wish to remove the cloth, turn to 90.
358

Realizing your narrow escape, you hasten to climb
back up the ladder. This calls for no particular skill,
and once at the top you pause to pull the ladder up after
you.

Turn to 180.

359

You have entered a room measuring thirty feet by
fifteen feet. There is a five-foot opening at the
right-hand end of one of the shorter walls, and a

passage leads away for twenty feet before turning a

comer to the left.

If you leave the room and proceed to the corner, turn
to 167.

360

If you stand in the opening, with the passage behind
you, you can see a ten-foot-square shaft leading
downwards. There is ten feet of floor between you
and the shaft, ten feet on the far side, and five feet of
floor on the right of the shaft. There is no way to
pass it on the left.

Spanning the shaft is a sturdy winch, with handles
long enough for two people to turn it on each side.
The one nearest you has a brake-arm swung into
place.

Just visible in the shaft is a stout, circular platform
with sides about two feet high, suspended from the
winch by a thick rope. Judging by the amount of rope
on the winch, the platform could be lowered for well
over 100 feet.

If you wish to go down, turn to 209.

360

You have come to a comer in the passage. Looking in
one direction you can see an alcove in the left-hand
wall, only five feet away. This alcove is only some
three feet deep, and there is no floor to it, only a
shaft leading down, narrowing as it goes.

If you wish to have a look at it, turn to 154.

If you have only just come from that point, you find
the passage turns left at this comer, then runs as far
as you can see into the darkness without any
features of note.

Turn to 372 if you wish to proceed, but make a
note of this paragraph number.

There is a circular platform suspended from the winch.

361-362

361

The other two bear the old man a considerable
resentment, but you manage to persuade them not to
dispose of him for now, and they agree to carry him
along while you act as guard.

You pass back out through the doorway from the cell
passage, and press the old man's palm against the
metal panel to close the metal doors.

Before turning to 62 to resume your joumey, you
should bear in mind that you now have two rescued
captives with you, as well as the old man. Your new
friends will be capable of restraining the prisoner, but
cannot be of further use against potential opponents.

If you come across future mention of the old man,
you may ignore it. However, if you encounter the
Troll, he will attack immediately, regardless of

circumstances.

If this happens, you will have to note the
paragraph where you are at the time, then turn to
386 to fight the Troll. You should, therefore, take a
note of ^6 now, in case of need.

362

This doorway lies between the large room with
couches and another which appears to be a smaller
counterpart of the first.

The second room is twenty feet square, with a
five-foot alcove in one comer leading to the only
door, which stands open. There are only two tables
in this room, well cushioned like the others. There
are no stone benches around the walls, but there are
half-a-dozen plain wooden stools.

There are several items on the shelves.

363

Again there are rows of shelves on one wall - the one
opposite the door - but there are only a few items on
them; several small, extremely sharp knives, a number
of cloths and towels, some needles and thread and two
more potion-type bottles.

These hold a green oily-looking liquid, and the only
way to determine the effect is to taste it.

If you wish to do this, make a note of this paragraph,
then turn to 153.

If you wish to take the bottles along, contents
untasted, then enter them on your Character Sheet as
'2 bottles green liquid 153'. If you later wish to try
them, remember to make a note of your current
whereabouts (para, no.) before turning to 153.

When you are ready to leave this room, turn to 52.

363

You stand at a right-angled corner in the passage. If you
take one as leading to twelve o'clock, you see another
passage joins it after only five feet, while this passage
ends only ten feet further on at another T-junction,
where passages lead off to left and right.

Turn to 71 if you wish to proceed as far as the first
side passage.

The other arm of your present passage points to three
o'clock, and turns to the right after only five feet.

If you go that way, turn to 275.

364

364

Breaking the glass panel is not particularly difficult:
a sharp blow in the middle with something hard, or
even stamping on it with your foot, if you lower
yourself down the shaft, will shatter it.

The shards of glass tinkle on to the floor below, and
some may even hit the Hound. Certainly it wakes in
no good humour, and in the ensuing uproar you can
hear the baying of at least one more of the creatures
in the room below.

Lying on the floor of the passage above, you regard
the frantic animal, which is trying vainly to leap
towards you, jaws clashing in its fury. It is as big as a
small pony, and seems to be a cross between a
mastiff and a wolfhound. Even if it were alone, you
feel it could cause you considerable damage, and you
cannot immediately see how you could get down to
fight it without sustaining damage on the way. There
is nowhere up here where you could tie a rope to
lower yourself. Even if you had a ladder the Hound
would almost certainly knock it over, and if you drop
twenty feet on to a stone floor you are sure to suffer
damage.

Nonetheless, if this is what you wish to do, turn
to 236.

Should you decide to throw something down to
the Hound, turn to 332.

Otherwise, there is little you can do here.

Turn to the last paragraph of 154.

365-366

365

You have entered what is basically a twenty-foot-
square room, with two five-foot-square and
five-foot-high recesses extending from one wall.
Quickly you realize that these recesses relate to the
unusual entrances.

The one through which you came in involved a stone
block pivoting on one corner, so it has left a recess at
the left-hand end of the wall, as you face it. Next to
that is the block itself, still with the rod jutting from

it.

There is a second, featureless recess next to the
opened block, and marks on the floor suggest that
this in turn would be filled if the block beside it
were moved, apparently by sliding to its left.

There is, in fact, a two-inch-square projection from
this block, and if you twist it you should turn to
341.

Otherwise, if you wish to look around the room,
turn to 389.

366

As you approach the first door, you see there is a
peep- hole in the centre, and, looking through, can
see a twenty-foot-square room within. It is sparsely
furnished and, sitting on hard metal bunks, are two
ragged, unhealthy-looking men staring apprehen-
sively at the door.

Pressing the old-man's palm to the metal plate, you
open the door and release the prisoners.

Turn to 345.

367-369

367

Your expenditure of Fortune Points ensures you are
lucky enough for the calm weather to continue, and
after three nights you reach the haven of Seven Wells
once more.

On arriving, you are greeted as a hero by the hard-bitten
frontiersmen, having single-handedly resolved one of
the great mysteries of Skyfall. They award you the
freedom of the town, but more importantly everyone in
the tavern buys you a large drink.

After suitable celebrations your new friends will take
their leave, and you are able to return home amply
rewarded.

Turn to 401

368

Close examination of the iron ring reveals traces of oil,
where it is set in the wall. It turns easily in an
anti-clockwise direction and, as it does, a door in the
centre of the wall, five feet to your left, opens noiselessly.
You move to look in, and see a five-foot-wide passage,
which turns to the right after only five feet.

If you enter the passage and advance to the corner,
turn to 239.

Should you decide to remain in the room, you turn the
ring the other way and the door shuts.

Turn back to 336, starting at the third paragraph.
369

As soon as you touch the statue's staff you feel yourself
knocked backwards several feet through the air to land
sprawling on the floor below the steps. The hand

370

which touched the staff is badly burned, and there
are minor bums on your feet.

You have taken 10 points of damage altogether,
and if this kills you, turn to 289.

Otherwise you may pick yourself up and may take
any Potions you wish to alleviate the damage. Unless
you take a Potion of Healing, your bumed hand will
affect your fighting skill, causing you to deduct 2
points from your Expertise score.

Amend your Character Sheet as necessary, then
turn to 116.

370

Having said this he stares at the shaft and the vacant
floor below it, looks at you, then starts to run back
through 62 towards the doors at 78, shouting as he
goes.

You realize that something has alerted him and once
he reaches the doors the Troll will be able to hear his
cries. You therefore have no alternative but to tackle
and subdue him, which is not particularly difficult.

Calculate E + 4H: you need a score of 11 to succeed.
If you do you are able to pin him down, bind him
with your rope and gag him with a strip torn from
his own clothing. You can then either leave him here
while you explore on your own (turning to 322) or
force him to tell you all he knows (in which case
turn to 398).

If you fail to score 11 ( and you can sacrifice Fortune
Points to modify your score if need be) he will

371-372

somehow manage to evade you and get through
the doors at 78 into the room at 158. There the
Troll will come to his aid, and you should turn to
338.

371

You stand before a closed wooden door. The black
metal handle is shaped like a bone.

If you turn it and push the door open, turn to 223.

Behind you, a passage runs fifteen feet to a

crossroads.

If you leave the door and move to that point, turn
to 19.

372

You have come to a point where three passages meet
to form a T-junction.

Looking down the central passage, with the others at
right-angles to either side, you will be able to see
what looks like a rectangular hole in the floor of the
passage.

If you go towards it, turn to 195.

Looking to your left, you can see that this passage
turns right, forty-five feet away. If you move to
that point, turn to 360.

In the other direction, the passage again runs
forty-five feet before turning right, and if you go
that way you should turn to 301.

373-374

373

You press your ear against the door and can
eventually make out an irregular clattering noise
from beyond, a little like the sound of hailstones
hitting the door of your home in one of the winter
storms.

Turn back to 287 and make your decision on
whether or not to open the door.

374

The Ogre has Vitality 16 and does 4 points of
damage, if it hits. Its Expertise is variable, as it
prefers to avoid full daylight. If you are fighting it at
night its Expertise will be 14, in the faint light of
dawn it will be 13, and once daylight arrives it will
be down to 12.

Carry out the combat routine as described in the
Game System; if this results in your death, turn to
289.

If you emerge victorious, you may add 4 Fortune
Points and 1 Point of Expertise to your Character
Sheet for succeeding against a formidable opponent,
and may pause to have a meal or take a Potion if you
wish. The extra exertions of combat have left you
desperately thirsty, and you need a long drink to
recover (thus increasing today's consumption to
three-quarters of a waterskin).

Having amended your Character Sheet, when ready
to proceed turn to:

278 if the fight took place by the boulder in the

darkness.

246 if the fight occurred by the thorntree at dawn.

375-376

182 if you ambushed the Ogre in daylight.

375

After a while, the light of your torch will enable you to
see two places of interest in this long, straight, dark
passage.

Forty feet in one direction you will see a T-junction
where this passage ends and others turn off to left and
right.

Forty feet in the other direction you can see a
rectangular hole in the floor of the passage, which
carries on beyond it.

If you go to the hole in the floor, turn to 119.

If you prefer to go to the T-junction, turn to 221.

376

You find that the flaring end of your torch is sufficient
to keep the serpents at bay, especially when you get
your back to the wall. However, you only have a
limited number of torches, which only last an hour or
two each, and there seem to be over a score of serpents
down here with you.

There is no way to climb out, unless you collected a
ladder on your travels and brought it into the room
with you. If you did, you will be able to stand it below
the door and climb to open it.

In this case turn to 325.

377-378

If you have no ladder, you will have to hope someone
(or something) arrives to get you out before you run
out of torches and the serpents get you.

Turn to 309.

377

You have reached a point where two long, dark
passages meet at right-angles.

One has no features of note within the fifty feet
range of your illumination, and if you go that way
you should turn to 141.

If we consider the first passage as pointing to twelve
o'clock, the second one points to nine o'clock, and
looking that way you can just make out a side
passage turning off to the right at the very limit of
vision.

Should you wish to move to that point, turn to 221.
378

There is a metal rod, grooved along part of its length,
which runs down the right-hand side of the shaft. At
the bottom it appears to be attached to the glass
panel, while at the top it joins a black metal box just
below the level of the passage floor. You guess it may
be intended to open the glass panel but cannot decide
how it works.

As the glass panel is five feet below floor level, you
will be able to hang by your hands and kick the panel
out. Alternatively, if you have managed to bring a
ladder along, you will be able to manoeuvre it down
the shaft and use it to break the panel.

Whichever method you use, the effect is something of

The serpents retreat a Uttle.

379-380

a surprise. The shards of glass only fall a matter of two
or three feet, and then hang suspended, apparently in
midair, at various odd angles.

If you drop down into the room to investigate, turn
to 36.

If you have a ladder and wish to climb down, turn to
4.

If you wish to throw a burning torch down, turn to
68.

If you decide to leave the shaft and continue along
the passage above, turn back to 269 and make a
fresh choice there.

379

There is a comer in the passage here. In one direction
the passage appears to end at a blank wall ten feet
away. You can see no evidence of doors or side
passages.

If you wish to go to the end and investigate further,
turn to 113.

If you have come from that direction, the passage turns
right here. In the other direction you can see another
comer ten feet away where the passage turns right
again.

If you move to this second comer, turn to 47.

380

Apart fix)m the dead Hound, which is tethered by ten
feet of chain to an iron ring set in the wall in the comer
of the room, the only other feature in this area is the
open door.

381-382

It may occur to you to try twisting the ring: if so,
turn to 204.

Otherwise, turn back to 38.

381

You spring quickly through the five-foot-square recess
and find yourself in a twenty-foot-square room. Three
of the walls are curtained, and only the wall through
which you entered is bare.

The recess, which has now disappeared, was at the
right-hand end of this wall, as you face it. The five-foot
block, which slid across to fill the recess and close the
opening, had occupied half a ten-foot-long recess
which now opens off the centre of this wall.
Considering the marks on the fioor of this long recess,
you feel there is probably another opening at the
left-hand end of this wall, as the five-foot-square block
at that end seems to be capable of pivoting to fill the
other half of the long recess. You cannot, however, find
any controlling device which might cause this to
happen.

Examining the block which you moved previously to
gain entrance) you quickly discover a two-inch-square
projection roughly matching the indentation on the
other side.

If you twist this projection, turn to 341.

Otherwise, if you wish to examine the room, turn to
389.

382

The old man shows you a chest in the comer to the
right of the doorway, in the room otherwise described

383

in 254. The chest is six feet long, three feet high and
two feet wide and made of some sort of metal. Heat
has been applied to it at some time as there are the
flaked and bUstered remains of paint adhering to the
top. Six letters have been deeply engraved into the
lid, and they are still legible. BASICV, you spell out.

Beside the letters is a small glass window,
undamaged by the heat, part of the rim of a small
wheel set into the chest, and a small black button. A
number is visible behind the window, and the old
man explains that turning the wheel changes the
number from through to 9.

He believes you have to set a number, push the
button, set another number, push the button and so
on, and if you select the right number the chest will
open. He has been trying unsuccessfully for some
time, and thinks that "BASICV' must represent some
sort of clue.

If you wish to try, select the number you think will
solve the code, and turn to that paragraph. If the first
word is 'Congratulations' you are correct and should
read OU; if anything else, you are wrong and should
turn back here.

When you give up, or if you prefer not to try, turn
to 254.

383

You turn the handle and pull the door open towards
you. There is a fifteen-foot-square room on the other
side, with this doorway in the centre of one wall.

The room is dark, but by the light of your torch you can
see that it is practically empty, with no sign of other

384-385

doors, although there is a dark, shiny panel in the
ceiling above the mid-point of the right-hand wall,
which might be worth investigating.

Lying on the floor, a few feet into the room, is a
scattering of objects. You can see a sword, a dagger,
over a dozen coins, a small bottle of the type used to
hold potions, and several buckles of various sizes.

Unless you have a ladder, you will not be able to
investigate the panel in the ceiling, which is fifteen
feet above the floor, but if you wish to enter the
room turn to 74.

Otherwise, you close the door and turn to 31.
384

As you close the door, there is a slight scraping noise,
and a secret door opens in the right-hand end of the
wall opposite the entrance. You can see a
five-foot-wide passage beyond, which turns to the right
after five feet.

If you enter the passage and move to the corner, turn
to 10.

If you decide against it, you open the entrance door
again, and the secret door slides shut.

If both dogs are dead, turn to 336, or if the second is
still alive, then turn to 320.

385

You find yourself hanging by one hand over a space
previously occupied by the passage floor. Fortunately
you have managed to retain your torch in the other
hand, and have a few seconds to look around before you
either have to release the torch or let go of the handle.

386

The 'door' you tried to open was five feet wide and
twelve feet high, but when you turned the handle the
bottom five feet hinged forwards, together with the
five-foot stone block on either side, through 90 degrees.
They now, therefore, form the ceiling from which you
hang over the space vacated by the floor.

This in turn was hinged at a point ten feet to the right
of the 'door' and has tilted down at a steep angle. Ten
feet to the left of the 'door', you can see where the floor
proper continues. You are rather to the left of the edge
of the tilted section which was the floor, and there
appears to be a considerable empty space below:
certainly your torchlight reveals no bottom.

There is no way you can successfully 'bridge' a
five-foot gap to work your way out, and even if you
could reach the edge of the stone blocks which form
the ends of the 'ceiling' over the trap, you would find
no hand-hold.

You have a few seconds before you need both hands to
support yourself, and you can use the time to try to
think of a way out.

Then turn to 80.

386

You decide you must try to kill the Troll, which has.
Expertise 15, Vitality 14 and does 3 points of damage
with its oddly-shaped club.

Combat is conducted in the normal way, except that
the Troll has the ability to regenerate. To simulate
this, if you manage to hit it in one round, you must
start adding back 1 Vitality Point to its total in every
successive round until it is back to the original total.

387

Only if you manage to do sufficient damage to take it
below zero Vitality will it stop fighting.

If you manage this, you will be able to sever its head and
limbs, kick the pieces apart, and it will take a little
while before it can again become a threat. You may add
5 Fortune Points to your Character Sheet for this
considerable success.

Your next actions depend upon where and when the
combat took place.

If you have already secured the old man, you should turn
back to the paragraph you noted before this combat
occurred.

If the old man is still finee, you will need to chase after
and overcome him, before he can dodge out through the
other doorway.

Turn to 313 as you will next have to see to the
permanent disposal of the Troll.

If the combat goes against you, the Troll's tactics will
change once it has reduced your Vitality below 4 points.

If you reach this stage, turn to 306.

387

As you open the door, which is unexpectedly stiff, you
hear a grinding noise nearby, and feel a vibration in the
floor. There is a heavy thud and the noise ceases.

The door starts to close of its own accord, and you must
either step back or jump through quickly to avoid being
caught by the edge.

If you step back and do not pass through the
doorway, turn to whichever of 159 or 207 you just
noted.

388-389

If you jump through,' turn to the other paragraph
number and delete your note.

388

The doorway leads lirom the room described at 52, and
you should turn back to that paragraph number if you
wish to return.

The door itself stands open, and there is a five-foot
recess beyond leading into a fifteen-foot-square room.
The purpose of this room is quite obvious: there is a
five-foot-square shaft leading downwards in the centre,
with a stout winch mounted over the top, thick with
what must be at least 100 feet of rope, and a large
bucket hanging from it. Several other buckets stand
along the otherwise featureless walls. All are over two
feet high and sUghtly less across the top.

If you wish to try lowering the bucket, for whatever
purpose comes to mind, turn to 164.

If you fancy the quick way down, you can just get
both feet in the bucket, and descend quickly into
the shaft. To try this course, turn to 260.

389

Apart fix)m the wall through which you entered, which
consists of bare black stone blocks, recessed as
previously described, this twenty-foot-square room has
curtains covering the walls. The ones facing you are
pale grey, with green ones on your left and purple on
the right.

In front of the grey curtains is an altar, made from two
of the usual black stone blocks, but this time
smoothed and polished until they gleam like jet. On
top of this is a three-foot-high gold statue of an

There are various gold items on the altar.

390-391

otherwise human male, with the head of a long-beaked
bird.

If you try to move the statue you will find it far too
heavy. However, there are various smaller gold items on
the altar which you will just about be able to cram into
your pack if you wish: two golden candlesticks, a golden
bowl and an (empty) golden goblet. These items are
obviously of considerable value - and their theft will
just as obviously seriously upset their owners. If you
take them, add them to your Character Sheet.

There is nothing else of note in the room: if you
entered through the left-hand end of the uncurtained
wall, turn to 365, while if you entered through the
right-hand endyou should turn to 341.

390

You clamber down the ladder, squeezing through the
narrow space at the bottom where the glass panel was
broken, then lower yourself to hands and knees on the
unsteady surface below.

As soon as your hands touch the surface you feel a
burning pain on your exposed flesh.

Turn to 244.

391

You stand at a point where three passages meet.

If you face down the centre one, which is at right- angles
to the other two, you can see another passage joins it
fom the left, forty feet away.

Turn to 123 if you go as far as this side-passage.

The second passage, on your right, runs fifteen feet to
another T-junction. Turn to 199 if you take that direction.

392-393

Opposite the second passage, the third one (on your
left) leads twenty-five feet and ends where other
passages turn off to left and right. If you take this
route, turn to 71.

392

If you wish to examine the black panels in the
ceiUng, you can prop the ladder against the wall and
climb to a point where your head is just below one of
the panels. They are two feet long and one foot wide;
one is above the centre point on the left-hand wall
and the other directly opposite over the mid-point of
the right-hand wall (looking from a position in the
doorway).

Both are smooth, cool to the touch, and appear to be
made of some glassy material. Your torch Ught is
reflected from them, and you are unable to see what
(if anything) lies above. You can find no fastenings,
and the panels do not move under pressure fix)m your
hand.

If you wish to break one, turn to 328 for the one
on the left, and 65 for the one on the right.

If you prefer not to try this, turn to 344.
393

You have now reached a point where three passages
meet.

The centre one is thirty-five feet long. At one end it
joins the other two passages at a T-junction. Looking
down this passage kora the junction you will be able
to see that, on the left-hand side at the far end there
is a five-foot alcove, with an opening in its floor.

394-395

If you wish to move to investigate the opening in the
alcove, turn to 146.

Looking to the left, you see that the passage continues
for forty feet, then reaches a comer where it turns left.
However, five feet before the comer on the right-hand
side there is another alcove, again with an opening in
the floor.

If you move to that one, turn to 154.

To your right, the third passage travels as far as you can
see into the darkness. Before that, there are two
openings, probably side passages tuming off to the
right, but closer, only ten feet away, is another alcove
much as the others, in the left-hand wall.

If you go there, turn to 269.

394

Whether you climb down the ladder or leap off
backwards to the floor, the result will be the same. By a
combination of stinging blows fiiom the tendrils and
landing awkwardly on the hard stone floor, you will
suffer 3 more points of damage before you are ready for
combat.

Amend your Character Sheet. If the damage has
been sufficient to kill you, turn to 289.

Otherwise, turn to 250.

395

As you seek a way to open the handle-less door, it
suddenly tilts forward and falls on top of you. ft is
actually not a door at all, but a rare subterranean
monster known as a Monolith. (Monoliths are a
siUcate life-form resembling a slab of rock. They can

It falls on top of you.

396-397

vary both their shape and colouring in order to blend
with their surroundings, but for some reason can only
grow by absorbing animal protein, which they usually
gain by crushing an unsuspecting prey.)

You may be able to spring clear as the Monolith falls
on you. Calculate E + 4H-T: you will suffer 1 point of
damage for every point below 18 that you score, and
may NOT use Fortune in this instance. If you achieve a
score of 18 or more you will be unharmed.

If you suffer so much damage as to be killed, turn to
289.

Otherwise, turn to 64.

396

Having apparently suffered a rush of blood to the brain,
you drop into the room below. Although fit and agile,
even you cannot hope to escape scot-free from a drop of
over fifteen feet on to a stone floor, and you must
deduct 2 points fom your VitaUty score.

Fortunately, your torch stays aUght, and you are able to
look around.

Turn to 268 unless the loss of 2 Vitality Points killed
you, in which case turn to 289.

397

With a powerfijl upward lunge, you thrust your weapon
at the centre of the brightly glowing yellow panel. It
shatters with a crash, but even as the shards are falling,
you feel a numbing blow to the hand which holds the
weapon, as if a giant had stamped upon it, and
simultaneously your heart gives a great leap. Your
senses rapidly desert you, as you feel your feet sUp

398-399

fom the ladder, but you are just aware that the light
above you has been extinguished.

You will have to be very lucky to survive such a
shocking effect to your heart. If you have enough
Fortune Points, cross 8 of them off your Character
Sheet and turn to 205.

If you have 7 or less Fortune Points available you
will be unable to do that, and should turn to 289.

398

With a little persuasion, the old man can be made to
talk and once started it is difficult to stop him. It is
obviously a speech he has made to initiates many
times before.

Make a note of this paragraph number. Then read the
descriptions in 354 and 318 (ignoring the first
paragraph) which is the conducted tour you would
have received had the old man accepted you as a
genuine initiate, and turn back to this paragraph when
you have done so.

Now you know almost as much as the old man about
this area and should continue- your travels fk)m

wherever you left off.

If you wish to see the chest with the suspected
valuable contents and the numerical code, turn to
334.

399

The door opens easily and, once you have stepped
through and released it, will swing shut with a click
fom the latch.

On one side is a fifteen-foot-wide passage leading left

400-401

to a large pair of doors and right to a comer where it
turns right.

If you are on that side of the door, turn to 347.

On the other side of the door a five-foot-wide passage
leads away lk)m it, stretching straight ahead as far as
you can see by the light of your torch. There is another
passage entering from the right after fifteen feet.

If you are on that side of the door, turn to 115.
400

A Paralysis SpeU had been cast on the chest, and you
have suffered the fuU effects. (Those authorized to
open the chest know the correct Words of Power to
prevent the spell harming them.)

Bent forward, one hand gripping the key and the other
holding your torch, you are unable to move. You will

still be there when the beings who use the pyramid
return, and they have a short way with intruders.

For this character, I regret the adventure has ended.

401

You feel that you would prefer somewhere cooler for
your next adventure. One of your uncles owns a small
mine near Crystal Peak, in the Mom Mountains, and
you have a long-standing invitation to visit him. You
decide that now is the ideal opportunity to make
contact with your uncle, and you resolve to plan a trip
to the west of the Kingdom as soon as possible.

The fantastic events of that fateful trip will be recorded
in the third book in the Skyfiall series.

MONSTER COMBAT RECORDS

Monster:

Monster:

Expertise:

Expertise:

Vitality:

Vitality:

Monster:

Monster:

Expertise:

Expertise:

Damage:

Damage:

Vitality:

Vitality:

Monster:

Monster:

Expertise:

Expertise:

Damage:

Damage:

Vitality:

Vitality:

Monster:

Monster:

Expertise:

Expertise:

Damage:

Damage:

Vitality:

Vitality:

Monster:

Monster:

Expertise:

Expertise:

Damage:

Damage:

Vitality:

Vitality:

Monster:

Monster:

Expertise:

Expertise:

Damage:

Damage:

Vitality:

Vitality:

w^I^N^f^U Game System

CHARACTERISTICS

EXPERTISE (E): Initial E is always 12. No limits to the
level to which E score can rise or fall.

VITALITY (V): Initial V is always 20. May not rise

beyond this and Death occurs if it falls to

FORTUNE (F): f

Initial F IS 1 0+3H-T.

Combat Resolution

Examples:

2H Toss 2 coins, count the heads
3T Toss 3 coins, count the tails
4H — Toss 4 coins, count heads and deduct tails
E+4H Toss 4 coins, count heads and add that
number to your E score
1 0+4H-T Toss 4 coins, count heads and add that

number to 10. Deduct number of tails for
your answer.

Combat Modifiers

* If SURPRISE is involved, subtract 3T from the
defender's E score.

* Toss E + 4H for yourself, and E + 4H for your

opponent. Winner subtracts appropriate Damage
points from opponent's V score. You may use
FORTUNE.

* Combat continues until one character's V score
reaches 0.

* FORTUNE: In combat, you may give up to 1 F point to
add 1 point to the Damage you inflict. Or you may use
1 F point to reduce Damage suffered.

Provisions

Food: Eat one meal per day to add 4 to your Y score.

Healing: 3 draughts. Each adds 8 to your V score. (Cannot
be used during combat.)